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385  Wash'n  St. Boston 


AMONG  THE  HILL- 
FOLK   OF    ALGERIA 


ON    THE    M  VKC1I    IN    TIIK    AUUK.S. 


Frontispiece. 


AMONG  THE  HILL- 
FOLK   OF   ALGERIA 

JOURNEYS  AMONG  THE  SHAWIA 
OF    THE    AURES    MOUNTAINS 

By  M.  W.  HILTON-SIMPSON 

B.Sc,  F.R.G.S.,  F.Z.S.,  F.R.A.L,  MEMBRE  DE  LA  SOCIETE 
DE  GFloGRAPHIE  D* ALGER.  Author  of  "ALGIERS  AND 
BEYOND,"    "LAND     AND     PEOPLES     OF     THE     KASAI" 


WITH  40  ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  A  MAP 


NEW   YORK 

DODD,   MEAD   AND    COMPANY 

1921 


(All  rights  reserved) 

PRINTED  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 9 

CHATTER 

I.  AT  THE    "MOUTH  OP  THE   DESERT"            .  13 

II.  AMONG  THE   HILL-FOLK       .            .             .  .35 

III.  FROM   AFRICA  TO   EUROPE       ...  55 

IV.  AT  THE    "CAPITAL"   OF   THE   AURES    .  .     74 
V.  FROM   MENAA   TO  THE   HOME  OF  A  SAINT  96 

VI.  TO  THE   CENTRAL  VALLEYS   OF  THE  MASSIF  116 

VII.  LIFE   IN  A  CLIFF  VILLAGE       .             .             .136 

VIII.  IN  THE   HEART  OF  THE   AURES  .             .             .159 

IX.  THE  HEALING   ART   IN   THE   HILLS   .             .         179 

X.  THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE   DJEBEL  CHERCHAR      199 

APPENDIX    I.     HINTS     TO     TRAVELLERS     IN     THE 

AURES  .  .  .  .233 

II.    SPORT  .  .  .  .  .237 

INDEX 243 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


ON  THE  MARCH  IN  THE  AURES      . 

"THE  MOUTH   OF  THE   DESERT" 

A  FEAST   AT   THE   TOMB  OF  A   SAINT 

A   PIPER  OF  THE   DESERT 

ON  THE  ROOF  . 

A  SHAWIA  POTTER,   BENI  FERAH 

FIRING   POTTERY  AT   BENI   FERAH 

BRINGING   HOME   THE   BRIDE   . 

A   WATER-CLOCK 

DANCING  AT  A  WEDDING,  BENI   FERAH 

IN  THE  OASIS  OF  DJEMORA 

MENAA,  "THE   CAPITAL  OF  THE   AURES  " 

THE   ABDI   VALLEY   FROM   MENAA  . 

AN   OULED  ABDI   DANCER   AND   HER   FINERY. 

ROSEBUD   ATTIRED  FOR  THE   FEAST 

CAVE  DWELLINGS,  MAAFA 

SPRING-TIME,  MAAFA 

NOUADER  AND  THE  ABDI  VALLEY       . 

WEAVING  TENT  CLOTH  IN  THE  STREET   . 


Frontispiece 

PACING  PAGE 

26 


.    26 

34 
.    34 

42 
.    42 

44 
.    44 

50 
.    56 

6G 
.    6G 

80 
.    80 

94 

.    94 

100 

.  100 


8         AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

FACING  PA.dE 

THE   HAMLET  OF  TIJDAD  ....  110 

BOUBISH  RECEIVING  HIS  FOLLOWERS        .  .  .   110 

THE   "GOUM"   AT   BRANIS  ....  122 

COOKING  A   "MECHWI"         .....   122 

THE   DEFENSIBLE   GRANARY  OF  BANIANE        .  .  130 

OULED  MANSOUR  AND   THE   RASSIRA   CANON  .  .   136 

FORETELLING   THE   FUTURE       ....  150 

INTERIOR  OF   A   "  GUELAA  "  ......   150 

THE   UPPER   RASSIRA  BASIN       ....  160 

THE   DEFILE   OF  TIGHANIMINE  ....   172 

TAGHOUT  ......  172 

SHAWf  A  SURGICAL  INSTRUMENTS  .  .  .  .188 

A   DEMONSTRATION   OF   SPLINTING         .  .  .  188 

DRUG   SELLER   IN   A   MARKET  ....   196 

DRESSING   A   FINGER   IN   THE   STREET  .  .  .  196 

KHANGA   SIDI   NADJI  .....  208 

THE     KAID    OF     KHANGA     IN    THE     CLOISTERS    OF    HIS 

MOSQUE  ......  214 

GATEWAY   OF  THE   OLD   FORT  ....  214 

OUR   HOUSE   AT   CHEBLA  ....  222 

KHEIRANE      .......  222 

THE   CLIFF-TOP   VILLAGE   OF   DJELLAL  .  .  228 

SKETCH-MAP    OF    THE    AURES  .  .  .       page  242 


INTRODUCTION 

TO  the  reader  of  guide  books,  of  railway  time-tables, 
and  of  the  advertisements  of  tourist  agencies  it 
may  appear  almost  absurd  that  a  traveller  should  pretend 
to  have  anything  new  to  say  about  a  range  of  wild  and 
barren  hills  whose  western  spurs  are  visible  to  the  naked 
eye  of  the  visitor  to  one  of  the  most  popular  tourist 
resorts  of  the  whole  world  ;  Biskra,  the  oasis  on  the 
fringe  of  the  Algerian  Sahara,  whose  hotels  are  thronged 
each  winter  by  hosts  of  seekers  after  sunshine  and  a 
dry  climate. 

It  may  indeed  seem  incredible  to  these  visitors,  as  they 
wander  around  Biskra's  crowded  market,  or  lounge  in 
the  beautiful  garden  of  the  Chateau  Landon,  that  less 
than  one  hundred  miles  away,  amid  and  beyond  the 
ranges  of  barren  rocks,  whose  glorious  coloration  at 
sunset  fills  them  with  wonder  and  almost  with  awe  as 
they  gaze  to  the  north-east  from  the  oasis,  there  are  to 
be  found  to  this  day  many  villages  in  which  a  European 
woman  has  never  been  seen,  and  a  white  race  of  natives 
very  many  of  whose  arts  and  crafts,  customs  and  beliefs 
have  never  been  described  in  print. 

Nevertheless  it  is  a  fact  that  during  our  three  winters 
spent  in  the  fastnesses  of  the  Aures  mountains,  for  such 
is  the  name  of  the  hills  to  which  I  have  referred,  my 
wife  has  been  the  first  European  woman  to  be  seen  by 
the  stay-at-home  inhabitants  of  many  a  remote  village, 


10      AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

natives  who  do  not  wander  to  the  great  centres  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  that  we  have  been  enabled  to  elicit  a  considerable 
amount  of  information  as  to  the  manners  and  customs 
of  the  fair-haired  Berbers  of  the  hills  which  has  hitherto 
remained  unknown  to  European  students  of  native  life. 

The  object  of  our  journeys  in  the  winters  1912-13, 
1913-14,  and  1919-20  was  to  collect  specimens  of  Berber 
handicraft  for  the  Pitt-Rivers  Museum,  Oxford,  as  well 
as  to  glean  all  possible  information  upon  the  life  of  the 
people  and  upon  the  ancient  medicine  and  surgery  which, 
it  was  suspected,  had  been  secretly  practised  in  the 
Aures  for  many  generations  past,  and  which  it  has  been 
our  privilege  to  examine  in  some  detail  for  the  first  time. 
Some  of  the  information  we  have  collected  has  been 
laid  before  various  learned  societies  in  England  ;  it  is 
hoped,  in  due  course,  to  publish  the  technical  results 
of  our  work  in  full. 

The  present  volume,  far  from  attempting  to  discuss  at 
length  the  various  ethnographical  problems  presented  by 
the  Berbers,  constitutes  an  endeavour  to  answer  some 
of  the  innumerable  questions  as  to  their  life  and  as  to 
the  conditions  under  which  journeys  in  the  hills  can  be 
carried  out  that  have  been  put  to  us  by  passing  travellers 
at  Biskra,  El  Kantara,  and  elsewhere,  each  time  we  have 
come  down  from  the  Aures  to  rest ;  questions  which 
show  clearly  that  many  a  visitor  to  Algeria  would  gladly 
learn  more  of  the  life  of  its  natives  than  a  stay  in  a 
tourist  centre  can  reveal  to  him,  and  that  there  are  many 
who  would  undertake  expeditions  among  the  hill-folk 
were  they  aware  of  the  conditions  prevailing  in  the 
mountains. 

Having  wandered  up  and  down  all  the  main  valleys  of 
the  Aures  massif,  visiting  many  of  its  remotest  hamlets 
as  well  as  all  its  larger  villages,  I  have  endeavoured  in 


INTRODUCTION  11 

the  following  pages  so  to  describe  the  country  that 
any  of  my  readers  who  care  to  undergo  the  discomforts 
incidental  to  travel  in  such  districts  may  follow  in  our 
footsteps,  and  in  addition,  for  it  is  hoped  soon  to  con- 
struct motor  roads  through  the  heart  of  the  massif,  to 
point  the  way  to  many  interesting  and  beautiful  localities 
which  will,  in  the  future,  be  accessible  to  the  tourist  who 
indulges  in  the  luxury  of  a  car. 

In  taking  the  reader  from  village  to  village  in  the 
Aures  I  have  attempted  to  bring  to  his  notice  many  of 
the  more  remarkable  of  the  customs  of  the  Berbers  so 
that,  having  accompanied  us  through  these  pages  in  our 
wanderings  in  the  hills,  he  may  obtain  a  greater  knowledge 
of  the  life  of  this  ancient  people  than  he  could  acquire 
without  spending  many  months  in  daily  contact  with 
it  or  by  the  study  of  existing  literature  on  the  subject, 
for,  although  during  the  seventeen  years  and  more  which 
have  elapsed  since  I  commenced  my  travels  in  Algeria 
I  have  read  most  of  the  serious  works  relating  to  that 
country,  I  have  found  no  detailed  description  of  Berber 
life  in  the  Aures  in  either  the  French  or  English  languages. 
I  have  omitted  in  these  pages  all  account  of  matters 
of  strictly  archaeological  interest. 

My  work  is  that  of  the  ethnographer,  and  I  do  not 
pretend  to  the  knowledge  which  would  have  enabled  me 
to  carry  out  useful  archaeological  studies  in  the  field, 
even  had  I  found  the  time  necessary  to  devote  to  them 
amid  my  investigations  of  existing  native  life.  I  have 
confined  my  attentions  to  my  chosen  line  of  research. 
It  has  always  been  my  experience  that  the  natives' 
natural  love  of  hunting  provides  an  avenue  by  which 
his  friendship  can  be  most  easily  approached  ;  I  have, 
therefore,  at  various  times  done  a  fair  amount  of  shooting 
in  the  area  dealt  with  in  these  pages,  as  a  result  of  which 


12       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

I  have  ventured  to  offer  to  my  brother  sportsmen  some 
notes  upon  the  sport  obtainable  in  the  form  of  an 
Appendix ;  some  hints  upon  outfit,  etc.,  suitable  for  the 
hills  forming  the  subject  of  another  Appendix,  which, 
I  hope,  may  prove  useful  to  travellers  who  follow  in  our 
footsteps  in  the  Aures. 

With  the  exception  of  the  picture  of  the  drug  seller, 
illustrating  Chapter  IX,  for  which  I  am  indebted  to  a 
friend,  all  the  photographs  in  this  volume  are  from  our 
own  negatives  ;  the  sketch  map  which  accompanies  it 
is  merely  intended  to  enable  the  reader  to  follow  at  a 
glance  our  routes  upon  one  of  the  excellent  large-scale 
maps  of  Algeria  prepared  by  the  French  military 
authorities. 

If  these  pages,  penned  during  a  pressure  of  other  work, 
can  succeed  in  increasing  the  enjoyment  of  my  fellow 
travellers  by  inducing  them  to  visit  the  mountain  homes 
of  the  Berbers  of  the  Aures  ;  if  the  picture,  incomplete 
as  it  must  necessarily  be  in  any  but  a  strictly  technical 
work,  which  I  have  endeavoured  to  draw  of  native  life 
in  the  hills,  can  give  my  readers  a  clearer  insight  into  some 
of  the  phases  of  that  life  than  a  brief  visit  to  Algeria  can 
afford  them  ;  or,  especially,  if  an  acquaintanceship  with 
the  natives,  formed  by  a  perusal  of  the  pages,  may  lead 
some  future  wanderer  to  study  and  describe  the  many 
points  in  their  maimers  and  customs  which  are  still 
shrouded  in  mystery  before  the  slow  but  steady  advance 
of  western  civilization  has  hidden  them  from  us  for  ever, 
then  the  labour  expended  upon  the  writing  of  these  lines 
cannot,  surely,  have  been  in  vain. 

M.  W.   HILTON-SIMPSON. 


AMONG  THE   HILL-FOLK 
OF   ALGERIA 

CHAPTER    I 
AT   THE   "MOUTH   OF   THE   DESERT'' 

A  GLANCE  AT  THE  GEOGBAPHY  OF  THE  AUBES — "  THE  MOUTH  OF  THE 
DESEBT  " — EL  KANTABA  AS  A  BASE  FOB  JOUBNEYS  INTO  THE  HILLS 
— THE  VILLAGES  OF  Eli  KANTABA — THE  CAFES — LIFE  OF  AN  ABAB 
IN  THE  OASIS — THE  GABDENS — DATE  HABVEST — THE  SHEPHEBDS — 
FESTIVALS  AT  THE  TOMBS  OF  SAINTS — AMONG  THE  ABAB  WOMEN  OF 
EL  KANTABA. 

IF  we  draw  upon  the  map  of  eastern  Algeria  a  straight 
line  running  from  north  to  south  from  the  Mediter- 
ranean coast,  through  the  town  of  Constantine,  to  a  point 
some  fifty  miles  to  the  east  of  Biskra  in  the  great  desert, 
we  shall  find  that  the  line  so  drawn,  upon  leaving  the 
coast,  will  pass  through  a  region  of  green  wooded  hills 
well  watered  by  its  annual  rainfall,  upon  descending  from 
which  it  will  cross  the  high  central  plateau  of  Algeria, 
some  three  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  the 
great  grain-producing  country  of  the  Romans,  near  the 
famous  ruins  of  whose  once  flourishing  town  of  Timgad, 
it  will  enter  another  range  of  hills  before  finally  descending 
to  nearly  the  level  of  the  sea  in  the  Sahara. 

This  range  of  hills,  which  more  or  less  continuously 
forms  the  northern  boundary  of  the  desert  from  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  Gulf  of  Gabes  on  the  Tunisian 

13 


14       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

coast,  is  divided  into  various  massifs,  through  the  highest 
of  which  to  be  found  in  Algeria  our  imaginary  line  will 
pass. 

The  geography  of  the  Aures  itself,  the  Mons  Aurasius 
of  Roman  times,  is  in  a  sense  a  replica  in  miniature  of 
the  geography  of  the  country  in  the  same  longitude  ;  thus 
were  we  to  traverse  it  from  north  to  south  we  should 
find  that  its  northern  slopes  are  well  wooded,  its  high 
central  valleys  less  extensively  so,  while  in  the  south  its 
few  poor  streams  flow  through  a  tumble  of  barren  hills 
till  they  lose  themselves  in  the  great  desert ;  in  less  than 
sixty  miles  as  the  crow  flies  we  should  have  left  behind 
us  forests  of  pine  and  cedar,  and,  after  passing  through  a 
high  country  of  grey  rocks  studded  with  juniper  and  ilex, 
suggestive  of  parts  of  southern  Europe,  we  should  find 
ourselves  at  last  in  Africa,  a  desert  land  in  whose  deep 
canons  oases  of  date  palms  extend  along  the  banks  of 
its  streams.  This  mountainous  massif  of  the  Aures  is 
peculiarly  well  fitted  from  its  geographical  position  to  be 
the  home  of  ancient  survivals,  for  it  offers  to  its  inhabi- 
tants magnificent  natural  facilities  for  defence  against  any 
invader  who  might  be  tempted  to  subjugate  them. 

Its  steep  densely  wooded  northern  slopes,  above  which 
the  peaks  of  Chelia  (some  seven  thousand  feet  above  the 
sea),  Mahmel,  and  Ichemoul  gleam  white  with  snow  until 
the  spring  of  the  year  has  wellnigh  given  place  to  the 
fierce  heat  of  summer,  offer  but  scant  hope  of  success  to 
an  invader  approaching  from  the  level  country  between 
Batna  and  Khenchcla,  two  French  settlements  on  the 
plateau  ;  the  barren  rocks  which  form  its  southern  boun- 
dary, those  rocks  whose  ever-changing  shades  of  pink 
to  purple  at  eventide  present  to  the  traveller  at  Biskra 
one  of  the  most  lovely  distant  panoramas  he  will  find  in 
Algeria,  constitute  a  barrier  which  might  well  daunt  any 


AT  THE   "MOUTH  OF  THE  DESERT"         15 

foe  who  threatened  the  country  from  the  desert ;  to  the 
east  the  great  ridge  of  the  Djebel  Cherchar,  between 
Khanga  Sidi  Nadji  in  the  south  and  Khenchela  in  the 
north,  provides  a  bastion  of  defence  for  the  central  portion 
of  the  range  ;  while  its  western  border,  roughly  speaking 
the  valley  now  followed  by  the  railway  from  Batna  to 
Biskra,  though  scarcely  so  well  defined  as  its  northern 
and  southern  limits,  is  rugged  and  forbidding  enough  to 
provide  its  inhabitants  with  a  magnificent  line  of  defence. 
The  history  of  the  country  is  precisely  what  a  glance  at 
its  geography  would  lead  us  to  suppose  it  to  be.  Rome, 
doubtless  not  caring  to  undertake  extensive  military 
operations  for  the  complete  subjugation  of  such  an 
inhospitable  region  as  the  Aures,  appears  to  have  been 
content  to  protect  her  granaries  on  the  plateau  by  means 
of  a  permanent  camp — the  size  of  the  ruins  of  this  camp 
at  Lambese  will  show  us  that  she  did  not  despise  the 
wild  tribes  of  the  hills  ;  the  great  Arab  invader  of  Africa, 
Sidi  Okba  ben  Nan,  who  carried  the  sword  of  Islam  from 
the  Red  Sea  to  the  Atlantic  in  the  seventh  century,  was 
defeated  and  slain  by  these  same  tribesmen  who,  led  by 
their  chief tainess  Kahena,  came  down  to  give  him  battle 
in  the  desert  at  the  spot  to  the  south-east  of  Biskra  near 
to  which  now  stands  his  memorial,  the  oldest  mosque 
in  Africa  ;  the  Beys  of  Constantine,  in  the  days  of  Turkish 
rule,  held  but  little  sway  over  the  sturdy  mountaineers 
of  the  Aures. 

Indeed,  it  would  not  be  too  much  to  say  that  from 
time  immemorial  until  the  French  invasion  of  the  massif 
in  about  1845  the  Aures  has  never  been  definitely  con- 
quered by  the  sword,  and  even  quite  lately  it  afforded 
shelter  to  a  couple  of  bands  of  outlaws  despite  repeated 
efforts  of  considerable  bodies  of  troops  to  effect  their 
capture.     What  the  sword  could  not  accomplish,  however, 


16       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

religion  succeeded  in  attaining  ;  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Aures  bowed  to  the  faith  of  Islam,  and  with  the  faith  they 
gradually  acquired  many,  very  many,  of  the  customs  of 
the  East. 

But  to  this  day  these  people  have  retained  most  of 
their  physical  characteristics.  Members  of  the  ancient 
Berber  race,  their  fair  hair,  blue  eyes,  and  complexions 
which  are  pale  beneath  the  tan  produced  by  the  great 
heat  of  the  African  summer  distinguish  them  at  a  glance 
from  the  darker  Semitic  and  negroid  types  of  the  desert ; 
while  the  old  Berber  language,  though  no  longer  written, 
is  still  spoken  by  the  Shawia  tribes,  as  the  Berbers  of 
the  Aures  are  called,  who  have  never  adopted  the  Arabic 
of  their  new  faith. 

It  was  on  account  of  the  probability  of  finding  the 
Berber  of  the  Aures  as  little  changed  as  any  of  his 
kindred,  less  so  than  his  Kabyle  cousins  of  the  mountains 
near  the  coast,  who  have  been  more  progressive  in  the 
adoption  of  Western  ideas,  that  my  wife  and  I  turned  our 
attention  to  the  study  of  Shawia  life  in  the  winter  of 
1912-13.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  Shawia  tribes, 
unable,  of  course,  to  live  upon  the  barren  rocky  peaks  of 
their  native  hills,  inhabit  the  six  main  valleys  of  the 
massif,  the  valleys  of  the  Wed  (river)  Bouzina,  Wed  Abdi, 
Wed  el  Abiod  with  its  continuation  the  Wed  Rassira, 
Wed  Guechtan,  Wed  el  Arab,  and  Wed  beni  Babar,  which 
run  from  the  high  country  in  the  north  of  the  range 
towards  the  Sahara,  and  that  these  valleys  are  divided 
by  precipitous  ridges  passable  by  but  few  rough  tracks, 
I  considered  that  the  best  means  of  exploring  the  Aures 
would  be  to  select  a  suitable  base  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  hills  and  to  take  from  it  a  series  of  short  journeys 
of  one  or  two  months'  duration  in  each  of  which  we 
could   investigate   one   particular  valley,   returning  after 


AT  THE   "MOUTH  OF  THE  DESERT"       17 

each  journey  to  our  base  to  replenish  our  stores,  thus 
avoiding  the  necessity  of  encumbering  ourselves  with 
impedimenta  for  a  stay  of  a  whole  winter  in  the  hills, 
which  impedimenta  implies  the  use  of  additional  mule 
transport,  as  well  as  giving  us  opportunities  to  rest  after 
the  unavoidable  discomforts  of  a  stay  in  remote  Shawia 
villages.  I  found  a  very  suitable  base  for  such  expedi- 
tions in  El  Kantara,  the  "  Foum  es  Sahara,"  or  "  mouth 
of  the  desert "  of  the  Arabs,  Fromentin's  "  Golden  gate 
of  the  Orient,"  where,  after  rounding  the  eastern  spurs  of 
the  great  frowning  mountain  Metlili,  upon  which  the 
sportsman  may  try  his  skill  in  the  quest  of  Barbary  sheep, 
the  train,  following  the  course  of  an  oleander  bordered 
stream,  suddenly  plunges  into  a  narrow  cleft  in  a  red 
wall  of  rock,  whose  precipitous  sides  tower  a  thousand 
feet  above  the  brook,  and  emerges  two  or  three  hundred 
yards  further  on  into  a  wide  stony  valley,  revealing  to 
the  traveller  from  the  coast  at  once  his  first  glimpse  of 
real  desert  and  of  an  oasis  of  date  palms,  spread  like  a 
deep  green  carpet  at  the  foot  of  the  rocky  ridge  he  has 
just  left  behind  him.  Far  abler  pens  than  mine  have 
described  the  glories  of  El  Kantara  and  the  ever-changing 
hues  of  its  barren  rocks,  at  once  the  ambition  and  the 
despair  of  many  an  artist,  soft  in  the  light  of  dawn, 
shimmering  beneath  the  noonday  sun,  or  glowing  in  all 
the  fiery  splendour  of  the  evening ;  I  will,  therefore, 
content  myself  with  describing  the  place  as  a  centre 
from  which  to  explore  the  neighbouring  hills  and  in  which 
to  commence  a  study  of  native  life.  El  Kantara  is 
peculiarly  suitable  as  a  base  owing  to  the  fact  that  Shawia 
villages  can  be  reached,  and  thus  the  traveller's  investi- 
gations can  be  begun,  at  a  shorter  distance  from  the 
railway  than  is  possible  from  either  Batna  or  Biskra ; 
thus  a  ride  of  a  short  half-day's  duration,  upon  slow- 

2 


18       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

moving  mules,  will  enable  him  to  reach  Beni  Ferah  to 
the  south-east  or  Maafa  to  the  north-east,  while  a  shorter 
ride  still  will  take  him  to  a  purely  Berber  hamlet  in  the 
gorge  of  Tilatou,  from  which  he  can  return  to  El  Kantara 
for  the  night,  there  being  but  scant  accommodation  for 
a  European,  however  modest  his  requirements,  in  its  tiny 
cottages  perched  like  eagle's  nests  among  the  crags. 

In  addition  to  this,  the  mules  necessary  for  a  journey 
into  the  hills  are  readily  obtainable  at  El  Kantara,  and, 
although  El  Kantara  is  devoid  of  any  European  shops, 
the  stores  required  for  such  a  journey  can  be  ordered 
by  telephone  from  Biskra  or  Batna  and  received  next 
day  by  train,  while  the  existence  of  a  post  and  telegraph 
office  opposite  to  its  little  hotel  ensures  constant 
communication  with  the  outside  world. 

The  European  settlement  at  the  Gate  of  the  Orient, 
which  lies  upon  the  north  side  of  the  ridge,  through 
which  runs  its  famous  gorge,  has  little  to  offer  to  a  seeker 
after  the  amenities  of  social  life,  for  it  consists  merely 
in  a  wayside  railway  station,  a  gendarmerie,  an  inn, 
a  small  school  for  the  children  from  these  establishments, 
and  a  couple  of  other  European  households. 

The  inn,  a  survival  from  the  old  coaching  days  before 
the  railway  to  the  desert  had  been  commenced,  is  quite 
the  best  in  which  I  have  stayed  in  the  course  of  some 
years  of  wandering  in  Barbary ;  scrupulously  clean, 
comfortably  if  simply  furnished,  providing  a  plain  but 
excellent  table,  and  personally  worked  by  members  of 
the  family  of  Bertrand,  to  whom  it  belongs,  the  Hotel 
Bert  rand  should  certainly  satisfy  every  want  of  the 
traveller  who  enjoys  its  hospitality,  and  who  will  remember 
that  he  is  staying  at  an  inn  and  not  at  a  great  modern 
hotel,  for  the  individual  who  expects  to  find  a  Piccadilly 
or  a  Ritz  in  a  hamlet  such  as  I  have  described  will  be 


AT  THE   "MOUTH  OF  THE  DESERT"       19 

better  advised  to  confine  his  wanderings  to  the  great 
highways  of  European  civilization  than  to  seek  the  nooks 
and  corners  of  Algeria.  Once  installed  at  El  Kantara  the 
traveller  who  is  interested  in  native  life  will  find  much  to 
occupy  his  attention  in  the  three  villages  that,  under  the 
control  of  one  native  Kai'd  or  chief,  nestle  beside  the  palm 
groves  on  the  southern  side  of  the  gorge,  for  the  majority  of 
travellers  spend  but  a  day  or  two  at  the  inn,  in  their  haste 
to  proceed  to  Biskra,  so  that  the  three  villages  have  not 
become  mere  "  side  shows "  overrun  with  European 
visitors,  in  which  much  that  is  native  in  the  life  of  its 
inhabitants  has  given  place  to  occupations  called  into 
being  by  the  requirements  of  the  visitors  themselves, 
and  the  undesirable  nondescript  who  dogs  the  footsteps 
of  the  visitor  in  most  fashionable  resorts  of  the  near 
east  is  scarcely  to  be  found  in  the  villages  of  El  Kantara  ; 
therefore  the  sedentary  Arab  population  of  an  oasis  can 
still  be  profitably  studied  without  even  leaving  behind 
the  accommodation  of  an  inn  and  the  facilities  of  a  railway 
and  a  postal  service. 

After  passing  through  the  gorge  along  the  highroad 
which  closely  follows  the  track  of  the  railway,  and  leaving 
on  his  right  the  school  built  in  native  style  by  the  French 
for  the  Arab  boys  of  the  oasis,  the  traveller  quickly  finds 
himself  in  the  main  street  of  the  first  hamlet  of  El  Kantara, 
known  as  the  "  White  Village,"  whose  tiny  native  shops 
which  border  the  road  to  Biskra  on  either  hand,  miniature 
emporiums  some  twelve  feet  square,  provide  the  Arabs 
with  almost  anything  they  require  of  European  manufac- 
ture, from  a  length  of  calico  for  a  woman's  dress  to  a  mule's 
bit,  or  a  packet  of  unwholesome  looking  sweets.  By  still 
following  this  road,  after  crossing  an  iron  bridge  over  an 
often  waterless  river  bed,  he  will  in  a  few  hundred  yards 
arrive  at  the  "  Black  Village,"  a  hamlet  possessing  little 


20       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

of  interest,  beside  which  a  camp  of  a  Senegalese  battalion, 
still  occupied  two  and  a-half  years  after  the  Armistice, 
has  been  built  during  the  war. 

Beyond  the  Black  Village  the  road  winds  on,  skirting 
the  fringe  of  the  oasis,  across  a  stony  level  plain  between 
the  ridge,  in  which  the  gorge  is  the  only  cleft,  and  a  line 
of  low  rocky  hills  to  the  south-east,  round  the  spurs  of 
which  it  wends  its  way  towards  the  great  Sahara  at 
Biskra. 

Upon  returning  to  the  White  Village  the  traveller  will 
find  that,  in  addition  to  the  main  road  by  which  he  has 
passed,  it  possesses  a  veritable  maze  of  narrow  tortuous 
lanes  between  houses  built  of  the  same  mud  and  straw 
bricks  which  occupied  the  attention  of  the  Children  of 
Israel  in  Egypt  some  thousands  of  years  ago,  whose 
corner-stones  not  infrequently  consist  of  fragments  of 
Roman  masonry,  of  which  large  quantities  are  found  when 
foundations  are  dug  at  El  Kantara,  and  that  beyond 
this  labyrinth  of  streets  of  windowless  houses  lie  the  date 
gardens  which  extend  from  the  village  to  the  high  left 
bank  of  the  stream. 

Wandering  along  lanes,  scarcely  wide  enough  in  which 
to  pass  a  laden  mule,  leading  through  the  gardens  to 
the  river,  the  traveller  whose  gaze  has  so  lately  contem- 
plated the  barren  stony  desert  and  rocky  hills  will 
probably  begin  to  realize  why  the  Prophet  of  Islam  has 
chosen  a  garden  as  the  idea  of  heaven  to  place  before 
the  desert-weary  eyes  of  his  Arabian  followers  in  the 
sacred  Suras  of  his  Koran. 

No  greater  contrast  can  be  imagined  than  that  which 
exists  between  the  panorama  of  a  desert  dancing  in  the 
heat  of  a  still  powerful  sun  and  the  quiet  shade  of  a 
forest  of  stately  palms,  beneath  which  flourish  in  fair 
profusion  apricots,  almonds,  and  other  fruit  trees,  clothed 


AT  THE   "MOUTH  OF  THE  DESERT"       21 

in  delicate  blossom  of  white  and  pink  in  the  springtime, 
or  adding  a  glorious  note  of  gold  to  the  scene  as  their 
leaves  assume  an  autumn  tint,  whose  presence  serves  to 
break  the  otherwise  somewhat  monotonous  beauty  of 
the  oasis. 

Gardens  and  a  plentiful  supply  of  clear  limpid  streams  ; 
such  is  the  dream  of  the  sun-scorched  thirsty  soul  in  the 
desert,  and  these  are  precisely  the  reward  which  the  wise 
old  Arabian  prophet  has  promised  for  ever  to  the  Faithful 
in  the  life  beyond  the  grave,  adding  to  his  picture  of  the 
land  of  the  hereafter  the  presence  of  maidens,  to  whose 
allure  it  must  be  confessed  the  Arab,  and  for  that  matter 
the  Shawia  also,  are  far  more  susceptible  than  to  the 
charms  of  scene  and  verse,  despite  the  literary  tendencies 
with  which  some  travellers  have  attempted  to  endow  the 
usually  illiterate  dwellers  in  the  Sahara  ! 

Arrived  at  the  side  of  the  Wed  el  Kantara  the  traveller 
will  obtain  a  glimpse  of  the  third  hamlet  of  the  oasis, 
called  from  colour  of  the  surrounding  soil  the  "  Red 
Village,"  standing  high  upon  the  bank  of  the  opposite 
shore,  amidst  its  groves  of  date  and  fruit  trees,  commanding 
a  fine  view  of  a  bend  in  the  watercourse  and  of  the  gorge 
beyond. 

Crossing  the  river  by  means  of  stepping-stones,  with 
the  use  of  which  he  can  dispense  after  one  of  the  all  too 
frequent  periods  of  drought  which  afflict  this  otherwise 
pleasant  land,  for  the  water  which  comes  down  from  the 
mountains  has  usually  nearly  all  been  transferred  to 
little  irrigation  canals  to  supply  the  gardens  at  a  point 
well  above  the  Red  Village  in  dry  seasons,  he  can  climb 
up  a  steep  path  to  the  village  itself,  and  rinding  his  way 
along  its  narrow  streets,  passing  a  quaint  native  cafe" 
as  he  goes,  he  will  gradually  turn  northward  on  a  French- 
made  road  towards  the  gorge,  re-crossing  the  stream  by 


22       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

means  of  an  unsightly  iron  bridge  situated  a  couple  of 
hundred  yards  below  the  renovated  Roman  structure 
from  which  the  place  takes  its  Arabic  name  of  El  Kantara, 
"  the  bridge  "  ;  then  in  a  few  minutes  he  will  have  passed 
northwards  through  the  gorge,  in  which  the  wind  usually 
blows  chill  at  early  morning  and  at  dusk,  and  will  find 
himself  back  again  at  his  inn. 

In  these  surroundings  my  wife  and  I  commenced  our 
inquiries  into  the  customs  of  the  Arabs  of  an  oasis  with 
a  view  to  comparing  them  with  those  of  the  Berbers  of 
the  hills.  I  have  always  found  that  the  best  means  of 
becoming  well  acquainted  with  the  inhabitants  of  an 
Algerian  village  is  to  approach  them  in  the  guise  of  a 
hunter,  for  the  natives  entertain  a  strong  fellow-feeling 
for  the  sportsman,  and  to  frequent  their  coffee  houses  ; 
when  not  undertaking  expeditions  in  search  of  the  Bar- 
bary  sheep  and  two  species  of  gazelle  obtainable  in  the 
district,  therefore,  we  spent  much  time  in  the  consumption 
of  black  coffee  in  the  club-like  caf£s  of  the  Red  and  White 
Villages. 

There,  in  the  cafe\  a  rectangular  building  of  mud-brick, 
its  rafters  of  palm  trunk  supported  by  one  or  more  pillars 
of  the  same  wood  or  of  brickwork,  are  to  be  met  with 
natives  of  all  classes,  nomads  from  the  tents  of  the  sur- 
rounding desert,  Shawia  Berbers  from  the  hills,  as  well 
as  the  male  inhabitants  of  El  Kantara,  who  drop  in  to 
partake  of  coffee,  their  only  stimulant,  and  to  pass  the 
time  of  day  with  their  friends  in  what  is,  to  all  intents 
and  purposes,  their  club. 

Squatting  upon  mats  spread  upon  the  ground  amid 
clouds  of  smoke  from  cigarettes,  or  from  juniper  leaves 
smoked  in  the  bone  of  a  goat's  leg  hollowed  to  form  a 
tube,  the  coffee-drinkers  indulge  in  such  amusements  as 
dominoes,  a  form  of  draughts,  or,  sometimes,  in  defiance 


AT  THE   "MOUTH  OF  THE  DESERT"       23 

of  the  Prophet,  for  considerable  stakes  in  games  played 
with  highly-coloured  Spanish  cards. 

Often  music  in  the  form  of  the  reed  and  tambourine  is 
provided  in  the  cafe\  while,  rarely,  an  itinerant  bag-piper 
from  Tripoli  or  Morocco  delights  his  audience  with  sounds 
remotely  resembling  those  of  the  Highland  pipes,  whose 
strains,  recalling  a  far-off  desert  home,  have  brought 
tears  to  the  eyes  of  many  an  Algerian  soldier  amidst  the 
mud  and  misery  of  Flanders. 

Very  soon  we  began  to  make  a  considerable  number 
of  acquaintances  in  El  Kantara ;  at  first  among  the 
male  population  only,  for  women,  other  than  an  occasional 
danseuse  of  shady  reputation,  are  never  to  be  seen  in 
an  Arab  cafe*.  The  men  of  the  place  were  eager  enough 
to  talk  of  sport,  or  of  the  great  desert  to  the  far  south, 
a  country  in  which  I  had  wandered  fairly  extensively 
in  years  gone  by,  and  as  the  Arab,  a  dweller  in  a  land  of 
great  distances,  is  very  inclined  to  respect  those  whose 
travels  have  led  them  further  afield  in  his  barren  land 
than  have  his  own,  we  quickly  found  that  we  had  inter- 
ested the  natives  in  us  sufficiently  to  receive  many 
invitations  to  visit  their  gardens,  or  to  watch  them  plying 
their  various  crafts.  The  natives  of  El  Kantara,  as  a 
rule,  are  well-to-do,  and  many  of  them  own  plantations 
of  date  palms  in  the  oasis,  but  to  the  casual  observer  it 
may  well  appear  that  very  little  use  is  made  of  the  ground 
beneath  the  trees,  though  in  some  instances  beans,  red 
pepper,  pumpkins,  etc.,  are  to  be  found  under  cultivation 
in  the  gardens. 

The  Arab  is,  in  truth,  a  poor  agriculturist  compared 
with  the  more  industrious  Berbers  of  the  hills,  but  a 
certain  excuse  for  his  indolence  in  this  respect  is  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  although  El  Kantara,  situated 
some  1,500  feet  above  sea-level,  can  be  cold  enough  in 


24      AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

mid-winter,  when  the  wind  blows  chill  from  the  snow-clad 
peaks  in  the  north,  its  rainfall  is  extremely  small,  so  that 
the  waters  of  its  "  Living  River,"  even  when  swollen  by 
the  melting  of  the  mountain  snows,  barely  suffice  for  the 
date  palms  themselves,  which,  as  the  Arabs  say,  require 
to  have  "  their  feet  in  the  water,  their  heads  in  the  fire  " 
to  produce  a  satisfactory  crop. 

The  gardens  of  El  Kantara  are  at  their  busiest  in  the 
autumn,  the  season  of  the  date  harvest. 

At  this  time  some  members  of  each  family,  accompanied 
by  their  savage  jackal-like  watchdogs,  always  pass  the 
night  in  their  plantations  to  protect  the  crop  from  passing 
nomads,  whose  attentions  to  the  ripening  fruit  not 
infrequently  lead  to  the  use  of  gun  or  knife. 

The  picking  itself  is  by  no  means  devoid  of  danger. 

A  man,  or  boy,  carrying  with  him  a  long  cord,  climbs 
the  tree,  using  as  a  ladder  the  projections  in  the  trunk 
made  by  constant  cutting  of  the  branch-like  leaves  as  the 
tree  grows  upwards. 

Upon  arrival  at  the  leafy  summit  of  the  tree,  from  the 
centre  of  which  hang  down  great  clusters  of  dates  upon 
branches  resembling  the  mid-rib  of  the  leaf,  he  attaches 
one  end  of  his  cord  to  the  tree,  allowing  the  other  end  to 
fall  to  the  ground. 

He  then  saws  off  whole  branches  of  dates  with  the  aid 
of  a  small  serrated  sickle,  and,  calling  to  an  assistant 
below  to  hold  the  cord  taut  at  an  angle  with  the  tree 
trunk,  he  places  each  branch  as  he  cuts  it  across  the  cord 
so  that  it  can  slide  gently  to  the  ground,  thus  avoiding 
the  shock,  and  the  consequent  loss  of  fruit,  which  would 
result  should  he  drop  the  branch  directly  from  the  tree. 

The  date  palm,  that  great  wealth  of  the  desert,  is  by 
no  means  the  only  source  from  which  the  natives  of  El 
Kantara  derive  their  prosperity  ;    they  are  the  owners  of 


AT  THE   "MOUTH  OF  THE  DESERT"        25 

numerous  herds  of  goats  and  sheep,  which  latter,  lean 
though  they  are  compared  with  our  English  sheep,  are 
considered  nowadays  to  approach,  if  not  to  exceed,  in 
value  even  the  date  palm  as  a  possession.  Although  the 
surrounding  country  is  not  so  absolutely  devoid  of  the 
poor  pasture  which  serves  to  keep  life  in  these  hardy 
animals  as  to  force  the  stock-owner  of  El  Kantara  to  lead 
the  nomadic  life  of  the  Sahara  in  order  to  maintain 
them,  it  is  necessary  to  take  the  animals  to  some  distance 
from  the  oasis  to  search  for  food.  This  the  owner  is 
far  too  indolent  to  undertake  himself,  he  therefore  entrusts 
his  animals  to  the  care  of  professional  shepherds,  often 
mere  boys,  who,  forming  herds  of  as  many  as  two  or  three 
hundred  head  from  the  animals  of  a  number  of  owners, 
drive  them  out  daily  at  dawn  to  feed  upon  the  poor  herbage 
of  the  desert  and  the  lower  hills  in  the  winter,  leaving 
the  more  plentiful  supply  to  be  found  upon  the  higher 
slopes  of  Metlili  for  the  summer  months,  when  the  great 
heat  will  render  the  animals  less  diligent  in  their  search 
for  food,  and  when  the  scorching  plains  would  be  almost 
unbearable  to  the  shepherd.  All  day  long  the  shepherds 
move  slowly  over  the  country,  their  animals  feeding  as 
they  go,  keeping  a  watchful  eye  upon  any  straggler 
among  their  charges,  for  they  are  responsible  for  their 
loss,  calling  them  on  with  strange  cough-like  cries,  and 
rounding  up  a  wanderer  by  means  of  a  well-directed  stone 
often  hurled  from  a  sling  made  of  cords  of  plaited  halfa 
grass.  Great  vigilance  is  required  to  protect  the  flocks, 
especially  in  the  lambing  season,  from  the  attacks  of 
jackals,  which  are  very  numerous  in  the  country  round, 
and  whose  shrill  cry  often  breaks  the  silence  of  the  night 
around  the  inn  at  El  Kantara,  for  these  creatures  are 
bold  enough  to  carry  off  a  lamb  or  kid  even  in  broad 
daylight. 


26       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

Visits  to  the  cafes  and  a  desire  to  ingratiate  ourselves 
as  far  as  possible  with  the  natives  in  order  to  obtain  an 
insight  into  their  daily  life  soon  brought  to  our  notice 
an  oft-recurring  festival  both  at  El  Kantara  and  in  the 
hills,  namely,  a  subscription  feast  on  the  anniversary  of 
the  birth  or  death  of  some  local  Moslem  saint.  All 
mosques  in  the  country  are  built  to  the  memory  of  some 
native  who,  owing  to  his  blameless  life  or  to  a  reputation 
for  performing  miracles — frequently  to  a  combination  of 
the  two — has  been  deemed  worthy  of  inclusion  in  the 
endless  lists  of  the  Mohammedan  "  marabouts,"  and  who 
sleeps  his  last  sleep  in  a  tiny  chapel  in  the  building,  while 
those  lesser  saints,  whose  memory  has  not  been  perpetu- 
ated by  the  erection  of  a  mosque,  repose  each  within  a 
form  of  mausoleum,  which  varies  considerably  in  design 
according  to  its  locality,  those  at  El  Kantara  and  in  centres 
such  as  Batna  and  Biskra  usually  consisting  of  a  small 
rectangular  building  surmounted  by  a  dome  or  cupola, 
known  in  Arabic  as  a  "  kouba,"  while  in  the  poorer 
villages  of  the  Aures  a  mere  rectangle  of  stones,  without 
any  roof,  or  a  whitewashed  conical  heap  of  baked  earth 
may  serve  to  mark  the  last  resting-place  of  a  minor 
saint. 

Some  of  the  more  important  of  these  "  marabouts," 
whose  character  we  will  examine  more  closely  when  we 
visit  a  living  example  in  the  hills,  are  revered  throughout 
a  wide  extent  of  country,  while  even  a  lesser  holy  man 
possesses  long  after  his  death  a  considerable  local  following 
of  natives  who  consider  him  their  patron  saint,  who 
worship  in  the  mosque  erected  to  his  memory,  or  who 
bring  candles  and  incense  at  certain  times  to  burn  in 
his  "  kouba,"  or  in  the  recess  which  is  usually  provided 
for  the  purpose  in  the  tomb  of  even  the  meanest  saint. 
As  the  anniversary  of  a  marabout  draws  near  a  subscrip- 


"THE    MOUTH    OF    THE    DESERT. 


A    FEAST    AT    THE    TOMB    OF    A    SAINT. 


To  face  p.  '26. 


AT  THE   "MOUTH  OF  THE   DESERT"       27 

tion  is  opened  in  the  village  to  provide  a  meal  upon  the 
day  for  all  his  followers  in  the  neighbourhood. 

Each  household  contributes  according  to  its  means  ; 
thus  a  wealthy  stock-owner  may  present  one  or  more 
sheep,  a  well-to-do  shopkeeper  a  sum  of  money,  a  poorer 
person  a  quantity  of  barley,  while  the  very  poorest  will 
contribute  something,  even  if  his  gift  should  consist  only 
of  a  little  red  pepper  to  flavour  the  dishes,  though 
inability  to  bring  an  offering  does  not  debar  the  destitute 
from  the  forthcoming  feast. 

Upon  the  day  appointed  all  the  male  followers  of  the 
saint  repair  to  his  "  kouba,"  or  his  mosque,  accompanied 
by  a  number  of  women,  whose  duty  it  is  to  cook  food  in 
the  shape  of  stews  of  meat  and  "  kuskus,"  or  steamed 
semolina,  in  the  courtyard  of  the  building,  or  some  adja- 
cent spot,  the  flat  loaves  of  unleavened  bread  meantime 
having  been  placed  in  the  little  chapel,  heavy  with  the 
scent  of  burning  incense,  beside  the  raised  tomb  of  the 
holy  man,  which  is  decked  with  gaudy  muslins  and  hung 
round  with  brightly  coloured  silken  flags,  in  order  that 
some  of  the  "  baraka  "  or  holiness  of  the  illustrious  dead 
may  enter  into  them,  and  thus  be  absorbed  by  his  devotees 
when  the  food  is  eaten.  The  crowd,  especially  its  younger 
element,  many  of  which  have  been  commissioned  to  carry 
home  dishes  to  their  mothers  and  sisters,  who  in  many 
cases  in  an  Arab  community  would  not  attend  in  person 
at  the  mosque,  not  infrequently  becomes  unruly,  so  that 
a  doorkeeper,  armed  with  a  thick  stick  (which  he  does 
not  hesitate  to  use)  and  a  fine  flow  of  language,  such  as 
we  should  consider  singularly  inappropriate  to  a  place 
of  worship,  has  no  small  difficulty  in  regulating  the 
traffic  in  such  a  manner  that  the  incoming  throng  of 
devotees,  as  hungry  for  the  food  as  they  are  for  any 
blessing  it   may  contain,   does   not  trample  under  foot 


28       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

those  who  are    attempting  to   take  some  of   the  sacred 
meal  home  to  their  relatives. 

The  European  traveller  will  experience  no  difficulty 
in  visiting  any  of  the  mosques  at  El  Kantara  or  in  the 
hills  ;  as  a  rule,  however,  they  possess  little  or  no  archi- 
tectural charm,  and  usually  consist  of  a  bare  whitewashed 
apartment,  its  roof  supported  upon  palm-stems  or  pillars 
of  mud  brick,  a  niche  in  the  wall  indicating  the  direction 
of  Mecca,  to  which  the  Moslem  must  turn  in  prayer. 

The  minaret,  the  tower  from  which  the  long-drawn 
wailing  cry  of  a  mosque  official  summons  the  faithful  to 
their  devotions  in  all  the  large  Algerian  towns,  is  by  no 
means  always  to  be  found  upon  the  mosque  in  the  hills, 
and  at  El  Kantara  in  the  majority  of  mosques,  of  which 
the  oasis  possesses  several,  the  muezzin,  as  the  official 
is  called,  stands  upon  the  flat  roof  to  utter  his  call  in 
the  absence  of  a  tower  from  which  to  deliver  it. 

Mingling  daily  with  the  natives  in  their  cafe's,  at  their 
festivals,  or  in  search  of  sport,  we  had  not  long  to  wait 
before  opportunities  presented  themselves,  in  the  shape  of 
invitations  from  various  friends,  of  seeing  something  of 
the  life  of  the  Arab  women  in  a  desert  oasis,  opportunities 
which  were  valuable  enough  to  us  as  enabling  us  to  com- 
pare their  existence  with  that  of  their  Berber  neighbours 
in  the  hills. 

My  wife  was  the  first  of  us  to  be  allowed  to  enter  the 
house  of  one  of  our  friends.  It  is  easy  enough  for 
travellers  in  a  large  town  to  find  a  "  guide  "  who  will 
take  them  into  his  house  or  that  of  a  friend  whose  ideas 
of  the  sanctity  of  home  have  undergone  considerable 
modification  as  a  result  of  the  veneer  of  western  civiliza- 
tion to  be  found  upon  many  of  these  gentry,  and  whose 
female  relations  have  been  schooled  in  a  suitable  manner 
of    receiving    European    guests,    but    such    opportunities 


AT   THE   "MOUTH   OF  THE  DESERT"       29 

were  not  those  that  we  were  seeking ;  we  wanted  to 
become  really  friendly  with  a  few  households  so  that  we 
could  gradually  proceed  to  inquiry  into  matters  relating 
to  superstitions,  etc.,  which,  of  all  subjects,  are  best 
known  to  the  women-folk. 

The  women  of  El  Kantara,  despite  the  number  of 
travellers  who  annually  visit  the  "  Foum  es  Sahara," 
were  by  no  means  so  familiar  with  the  appearance  and 
costume  of  European  ladies  as  might  be  expected,  for 
while  they  are  scarcely  kept  in  such  prison-like  seclusion 
as  the  women-folk  of  wealthy  town-dwelling  Arabs  and 
are  not  veiled  as  are  the  rich  women  of  Algiers,  they 
rarely  leave  their  homes,  especially  when  in  possession  of 
their  youth  and  beauty,  except  for  some  definite  purpose, 
such  as  bringing  in  heavy  goatskins  of  water,  or  washing 
clothes  in  the  stream,  when  they  stamp  with  rhythmic 
tread  upon  the  soap-sodden  cotton  dress  material  placed 
upon  a  boulder  beside  the  brook,  gossiping  the  while 
with  friends  similarly  employed  and  usually  watched 
over  by  some  relation  of  their  husbands,  a  toothless  hag 
who  would  not  hesitate  to  make  mischief  should  a  young 
wife  throw  too  many  inquiring  glances  at  a  passing 
European. 

Thus  the  women,  especially  the  younger  ones,  were  by 
no  means  averse  to  making  the  most  of  an  opportunity 
of  critically  examining  a  European  lady's  appearance 
when  my  wife  was  taken  to  call  upon  them.  As  a  rule 
their  curiosity  on  these  occasions  did  not  manifest  itself 
until  the  head  of  the  family,  who  had  brought  in  the 
visitor,  saw  fit  to  withdraw,  for  nothing  will  more  surely 
damp  the  enthusiasm  and  generally  cramp  the  style  of 
an  Arab  woman  than  the  presence  of  her  lord  and  master, 
but  when  once  the  husband's  back  was  turned  the  atmo- 
sphere became  clearer,  and  my  wife,  between  gulps  of  milk, 


80       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

often  sour  and  always  tasting  strongly  of  the  goatskin 
in  which  it  had  been  kept,  or  mouthfuls  of  honey  and 
dates  pressed  upon  her  by  her  eager  hostesses,  had  to 
reply  to  a  regular  bombardment  of  questions.  Why  did 
she  wear  so  little  jewellery  ?  Had  she  more  at  home  ? 
How  many  children  had  we  ?  Why  had  they  not  accom- 
panied us  to  Africa  ?  Why  did  she  wear  such  dull  garments 
as  her  skirt  of  tweed  ?  Had  she  made  the  cloth  herself  ? 
How  much  had  she  paid  for  everything  she  had  about 
her  ?  These  are  but  a  very  few  of  the  inquiries  made 
at  every  native  house  she  visited  in  Algeria,  her  replies, 
intended  to  be  intelligent  answers  to  the  questions,  often 
evoking  roars  of  laughter  from  the  assembled  women, 
the  fact  that  she  never  wore  earrings  and  was  unable  to 
weave  cloth  for  her  skirt  being  considered  remarkably 
droll. 

Scornful  though  they  doubtless  were  at  my  wife's 
ignorance  of  many  of  their  most  ordinary  occupations, 
the  women  of  El  Kantara  never  tired  of  receiving  her 
visits,  and  gradually,  often  as  the  bearer  of  some  simple 
remedy  from  my  medicine-chest  for  a  sick  child,  I  too 
gained  access  to  many  of  the  households  in  which,  when 
once  I  had  been  introduced  by  the  head  of  the  family, 
I  was  always  welcomed  with  my  wife  (though  I  would 
never  visit  a  house  without  the  chaperonage  either  of  my 
wife  or  of  one  of  its  male  occupants) :  indeed,  I  believe 
that  in  certain  families,  whose  men-folk  are  often  away, 
I  am  the  only  male  person  of  any  race  who  has  the  entree" 
to  their  homes  in  their  absence.  We  may,  perhaps, 
examine  in  some  detail  the  dwellings  in  which  the  women 
of  El  Kantara  pass  the  greater  number  of  their  days, 
secluded  as  far  as  possible  from  the  gaze  of  their  neigh- 
bours, for  these  dwellings,  while  similar  to  those  of  the 
oases  in  the  great  Sahara,  will  be  found  to  differ  very 


AT  THE   "MOUTH   OF  THE  DESERT"       81 

considerably  from  the  houses  of  the  Shawfa  in  the  hills. 
Windows  in  the  outer  walls  of  an  Arab  house  are  con- 
spicuous by  their  absence,  the  temptation  they  would 
offer  to  some  fair  member  of  the  family  to  see — and  be 
seen — by  means  of  them  would  probably  be  so  strong  as 
to  cause  a  gross  breach  of  Mohammedan  etiquette  ;  the 
streets,  therefore,  present  nothing  to  the  eye  but  a  long 
vista  of  sun-baked  mud  walls,  broken  here  and  there  by 
portals,  the  doors  of  which  are  almost  invariably  closed 
and  barred  in  a  manner  which  might  seem  to  belie  the 
reputation  for  hospitality  enjoyed  by  the  followers  of 
the  Prophet. 

Having  reached  the  entrance  to  a  house  which  we  have 
visited  before,  we  beat  upon  the  door  and  shout :  "  Oh, 
Fathma,  open  the  door."  At  first  no  notice  may  be  taken 
of  our  summons,  but  in  a  moment  or  two  a  voice  from 
within  will  inquire  our  business,  and  in  response  to  our 
"  It  is  no  one  but  Simsim  and  his  wife  "  (for  a  European 
prefix  to  a  name  has  no  place  among  the  women)  the 
door  will  be  opened  a  little  to  allow  us  to  slip  through, 
yet  not  exposing  the  opener  to  the  gaze  of  passers-by. 
Once  inside,  and  the  door  closed  quickly  behind  us,  we 
find  ourselves  as  a  rule  in  a  sort  of  inner  porch  or  a  vesti- 
bule, often  provided  with  a  bank  at  one  side  to  sit  upon, 
which  communicates  directly  with  a  courtyard,  occupied 
at  night  by  the  animals,  or  in  a  large  unfurnished  room, 
which  is  used  for  the  same  purpose  ;  the  other  apart- 
ments, built  upon  no  special  plan,  a  room  being  added 
here  and  there  as  required,  open  on  to  the  courtyard. 
These  apartments  are  dark  and  dingy  in  the  extreme, 
for  they  are  lighted  only  by  the  open  door,  their  mere 
slits  of  windows  high  up  in  the  wall  admitting  but  the 
faintest  glimmer  from  the  courtyard,  and  they  boast 
nothing  which  can  be  dignified  with  the  name  of  furniture. 


32       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

On  one  side  a  hand-loom  for  the  weaving  of  burnouses 
and  the  silk  and  wool  hai'ks  or  shawls,  which  the  women 
of  El  Kantara  make  in  fair  quantities  for  sale,  will  usually 
be  found  rigged  up  close  to  the  wall ;  in  a  corner,  below 
a  hole  in  the  roof  serving  as  a  chimney,  a  heap  of  ashes, 
in  the  midst  of  which  are  three  smoke-blackened  stones, 
upon  which  to  rest  the  stew-pot,  marks  the  fireplace, 
and  from  the  roof  at  hand  may  often  be  found  suspended 
a  hoop  of  bent  sticks  to  which  a  piece  of  network  is 
attached,  the  easily  rocked  cradle  of  the  Arab  child  ; 
the  bedding  of  the  whole  family,  consisting  of  a  halfa 
mat  and  a  tellis  or  two  (home-made  sacks  of  goat's  hair 
for  carrying  merchandise  on  muleback)  to  lie  upon,  with 
one  or  more  brightly  coloured  blankets  as  covering,  lies 
in  a  tumbled  mass  upon  the  mud  floor,  or  upon  a  platform 
made  of  date-leaf  stems,  supported  by  wooden  posts, 
raised  between  two  or  three  feet  from  the  ground  to 
protect  the  sleepers  from  scorpions,  which,  in  the  summer 
only,  are  unpleasantly  common  in  the  houses  as  well  as 
beneath  the  stones  of  the  desert,  and  whose  bite  not 
infrequently  proves  fatal  to  a  victim  who  is  not  in  the 
best  of  health. 

Near  the  fireplace  a  tripod  of  stakes  supports  a  dripping 
goatskin  of  water,  while  a  similar  skin  containing  milk 
and  suspended  in  the  same  way,  so  as  to  be  easily  swayed 
to  and  fro,  forms  the  churn  for  making  butter,  which,  to 
the  Arab  taste,  is  more  palatable  in  a  rancid  state  after 
weeks,  or  even  months,  of  storage  in  a  goatskin  than 
upon  the  day  in  which  it  is  churned.  The  nooks  and 
corners  of  the  family  apartment  are  choked  with  an 
indescribable  medley  of  objects  ;  saddles,  bridles,  sacks 
or  huge  amphora-shaped  wicker  baskets  of  grain,  a  quern 
or  hand-mill  for  grinding  corn  (of  a  twin  stone  type  to 
be  found  in  the  Highlands  of  Scotland),  old  clothes,  heaps 


AT  THE   "MOUTH  OF  THE  DESERT"       33 

of  juniper  logs  for  fuel,  and  bundles  of  dry  date  leaves 
with  which  to  kindle  the  fire  are  but  a  few  of  the  articles 
to  be  found  strewn  upon  the  floor,  while  from  wooden  pegs 
driven  anywhere  into  the  crumbling  walls  are  hung  the 
cooking  utensils,  earthern  bowls  and  dishes  made  by 
the  Shawia,  or  by  the  housewife  herself,  tin  pots  of 
European  manufacture,  plaited  halfa  funnels  for  filling 
the  water-skin  at  the  brook,  and  even  in  the  poorest  houses 
one  or  two  china  coffee-cups  with  which  to  honour  a 
guest.  In  addition  to  the  human  members  of  the  house- 
hold, cats  of  a  leanness  which  must  be  seen  to  be  believed, 
goats,  kids,  chickens  (and  their  usual  unpleasant  asso- 
ciates) wander  all  over  the  room. 

Such  are  the  conditions  in  which  live  the  poorer 
families  of  El  Kantara,  or  families,  which  as  is  not  infre- 
quently the  case,  share  a  house  with  their  relations. 

More  wealthy  people  will  cook  and  spend  the  day  in 
one  large  room,  retiring  to  another  apartment  for  the 
night,  while  their  grain,  etc.,  will  be  kept  in  a  separate 
storeroom. 

Many  houses  have  additional  rooms  on  the  roof,  which 
is  reached  by  means  of  a  palm-stem  notched  to  form  a 
ladder,  and  in  these  rooms  the  branches  of  dates  are 
usually  suspended  to  ripen  after  the  harvest  and  for 
storage. 

The  flat  roof  itself,  surrounded  by  a  parapet,  is  much 
frequented  by  the  women,  the  parapet  serving  the 
purpose  of  the  garden  wall  of  cheap  suburbia,  a  medium 
for  scandal  and  gossip  rather  than  a  safeguard  to  privacy. 
It  is  not  good  manners  for  the  male  visitor  to  go 
upon  the  roof  unless  specially  invited  to  do  so,  which  he 
will  not  frequently  be,  for  in  so  doing  he  may  show 
himself  to  the  curious  gaze  of  the  women  of  neighbouring 
households  to  which  he  has  not  been  invited,  and  thus, 

3 


34       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

though  his  gaucheness  will  be  attributed  to  his  ignorance 
and  passed  over  in  silence  by  his  host,  he  may  unwittingly, 
be  the  cause  of  some  young  wife  "  next  door  but  two  " 
receiving  a  pretty  severe  talking-to,  if  not  a  thrashing, 
from  her  husband  should  he  hear  of  her  curiosity,  a  man 
I  know  having  actually  broken  his  sister's  arm  as  a 
result  of  seeing  her  peep  at  strangers  over  the  parapet ! 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  male  population  of 
El  Kantara  and,  for  that  matter,  all  Saharan  villages 
pass  their  days  and  much  of  their  nights  in  the  cafe, 
returning  home  merely  to  eat  and  sleep ;  family  life  there- 
fore, as  we  understand  it,  can  hardly  be  said  to  exist 
in  the  villages  of  an  oasis,  there  being  little  to  attract 
the  husband  in  the  dingy  surroundings  we  have  attempted 
to  describe  above,  surroundings  which,  however,  are 
considered  quite  sufficiently  comfortable  in  which  to 
imprison  that  inferior  animal — woman.  While  the  Arab 
can  be  an  affectionate  husband  for  a  short  time  to  a  young 
and  pretty  bride,  and  is  usually  a  far  too  lenient  parent 
to  his  sons,  how  does  he  regard  the  female  sex  in  general  ? 

Though  it  is  admittedly  impossible  for  the  European 
to  comprehend  fully  the  inner  workings  of  the  oriental 
mind,  we  can  fathom  to  some  extent  the  Arab's  idea  of 
the  gentler  sex  when  we  remember  that  in  his  own  tongue 
the  native  finds  it  necessary  to  apologize  should  he  use 
in  conversation  the  name  of  that,  to  the  Moslem,  loath- 
some animal  the  pig,  and  that  a  similar  apology  should 
always  follow  the  mention  of  the  word  "  woman,"  an 
association  of  ideas  which  gives  us  some  clue  to  the  state 
of  degradation  from  which  the  Arab  woman,  of  the 
poorer  classes  at  least,  has  never  been  able  to  rise. 


CHAPTER    II 
AMONG    THE    HILL-FOLK 

A  START  INTO  THE  HILLS — BENI  FERAH,  A  BERBER  VILLAGE  OF  THE  AT7RES 

— PRIMITIVE     POTTERY AN     ANCIENT     SYSTEM     OF     IRRIGATION — A 

"  WATER-CLOCK  " — A  RAIN-INDUCING  CEREMONY — THE   "  SORCERESS 
OF   THE   MOON  " A   WEDDING   AT   BENI    FERAH. 

HAVING  become  acquainted  with  the  Arab  inhabitants 
of  a  desert  oasis,  we  turned  our  attention  to  their 
Berber  neighbours  of  the  hills.  The  first  Shawia  village 
in  which  we  stayed  long  enough  to  undertake  any  investi- 
gation of  the  habits  of  the  people  was  Beni  Ferah,  some 
twelve  miles  as  the  crow  flies  to  the  south-east  of  El 
Kantara.  A  day  or  two  before  our  departure  from  the 
little  hotel  a  native  mounted  orderly  from  the  adminis- 
trative headquarters  of  the  district  joined  us  in  order  to 
assist  us  in  procuring  the  baggage  animals  necessary  for 
the  journey  and  to  accompany  us  in  our  wanderings 
only  in  the  area  over  which  his  administrator  held  sway, 
for,  upon  leaving  this  administrative  district,  we  were  to 
be  accompanied  by  another  orderly  from  the  headquarters 
of  the  area  we  should  then  enter. 

The  French  authorities  have  always  been  good  enough 
to  lend  me  the  services  of  such  an  orderly  during  my 
various  expeditions  in  the  Aures  in  response  to  a  request 
from  a  learned  society  in  England  to  further  the  interests 
of  my  work,  and  these  services  have  proved  invaluable. 
The  presence  of  the  orderly,  who  invariably  knows  every 
inch  of  his  area,  and  is  personally  acquainted  with  most 


36       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

of  its  inhabitants,  does  away  with  the  necessity  of  employ- 
ing a  "  guide,"  who  is  not  infrequently  nothing  but  a 
plausible  hanger-on  from  a  tourist  centre  and  quite  ignorant 
of  the  country  beyond  the  beat  of  the  ordinary  tourist, 
indeed  it  has  always  been  our  rule  to  employ  no  servants 
whatever,  other  than  the  drivers  who  accompany  our 
pack  mules  for  the  days  upon  which  we  are  actually 
moving  from  village  to  village,  for  the  blue  burnous  with 
its  red  trimmings  of  the  native  orderly,  his  official  uniform, 
is  a  certain  passport  to  the  hospitality  of  the  Kaids,  as 
the  chiefs  are  called,  or  the  headmen  in  the  case  of  small 
villages,  who  will  always  place  a  room  at  our  disposal 
and  provide  us  with  food  cooked  by  their  wives,  so  that 
all  the  "  housework "  necessary  consists  in  merely 
unrolling  our  sleeping  valises  and  cooking  upon  a  spirit 
lamp  any  small  additions  we  may  require  to  the  fare 
offered  us  by  our  hosts,  services  which  we  prefer  performing 
ourselves  to  delegating  them  to  a  number  of  hired  and 
often  undesirable  loafers  from  a  town.  Indeed  it  has 
been  my  experience  that  the  more  the  traveller  can  do 
for  himself  the  more  he  is  respected  by  the  natives,  and 
that  the  people  of  both  the  desert  and  the  hills  regard 
with  a  certain  contempt  one  who  requires  a  host  of 
servants  to  look  after  him,  although  obviously  a  number 
of  followers  are  required  should  it  be  necessary  to  camp 
out  away  from  a  village.  The  assistance  of  a  uniformed 
representative  of  the  Government  has  an  excellent  effect 
upon  the  prices  asked  for  mule  transport,  and  for  any- 
thing the  traveller  may  require  to  buy,  and,  in  addition 
to  his  other  uses,  he  provides  a  most  valuable  interpreter, 
for  all  these  "  dei'ras  "  who  have  accompanied  me  speak 
the  Berber  language  of  the  Shawia  as  well  as  Arabic, 
indeed  those  I  have  employed  in  the  remoter  parts  of 
the  Aures  have  been  Shawfa  themselves. 


AMONG   THE   HILL-FOLK  87 

It  may  be  objected  that  the  presence  of  a  Government 
servant  might  arouse  the  suspicions  of  the  people,  and 
cause  them  to  be  especially  reticent  with  regard  to  many 
of  their  customs. 

I  have  not  found  this  to  be  the  case.  The  orderlies 
are  natives  first  and  officials  afterwards  ;  they  are  well 
acquainted  with  what  goes  on  in  the  villages,  but  are  by 
no  means  anxious  to  interfere  with  the  liberties  of  their 
own  people  by  objecting  to  various  practices  which, 
while  outside  the  letter  of  the  law,  they  would,  and 
probably  do,  indulge  in  themselves. 

The  first  deira  we  employed  has  accompanied  us  upon 
several  subsequent  expeditions.  Belkadi  ben  Hamou 
has  grown  old  in  the  service  of  the  French.  Of  a 
kindly,  if  somewhat  fussy,  disposition,  he  took  over 
both  moral  and  physical  charge  of  us  from  the 
moment  he  first  joined  us  at  El  Kantara,  and  to  this 
day  I  am  convinced  that  he  regards  us  as  a  couple  of 
headstrong  children,  who  would  be  certain  to  get  into 
mischief  or  hurt  ourselves  should  he  allow  us  for  a  moment 
to  stray  beyond  the  reach  of  his  ever-watchful  glance. 

A  visit  to  the  Kaid  of  El  Kantara  resulted  in  his  promise 
to  secure  for  us  the  two  riding  mules  we  should  require, 
as  well  as  the  two  animals  necessary  to  carry  our  kit, 
so  that  early  in  the  morning  upon  the  day  appointed  for 
our  departure  the  animals  duly  arrived  at  the  hotel,  and 
our  rolls  of  bedding,  a  couple  of  suit  cases  and  two  wine- 
boxes  of  provisions  were  placed  in  nets  of  halfa-rope, 
laid  across  the  pads  on  the  mules'  backs  to  receive  them, 
or  stuffed  into  home-made  goats'  hair  sacks,  called  in 
Arabic  "  tellis,"  in  which  grain,  etc.,  is  carried  in  Algeria. 

Our  baggage  having  been  loaded  up  we  mounted, 
Belkadi  riding  his  own  young  horse,  and  followed  our 
pack-mules  southward  through  the  gorge. 


38       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

Upon  passing  through  the  gorge  of  El  Kantara  we 
left  the  Biskra  road  and  turned  eastwards  across  the 
wide  stony  valley  towards  the  range  of  low  rocky  hills, 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  lies  to  the  south  of  the  oasis, 
up  whose  steep  slopes  we  slowly  wended  our  way  till, 
on  arrival  at  its  crest,  we  enjoyed  a  magnificent  panorama 
of  wild  snow-capped  mountains  to  the  north  and,  a  short 
distance  farther  on,  of  the  foothills  which  fringe  the 
great  desert  to  the  south-west,  distant  barren  ranges  of 
whose  wonderfully  delicate  shades  of  blue,  purple,  pink, 
and  grey  nothing  save  the  brush  of  a  great  artist  can 
convey  the  slightest  impression. 

Crossing  a  high-lying  level  country,  studded  with  dwarf 
juniper  trees,  the  glorious  panorama  of  the  Sahara  and 
its  foothills  always  visible  on  our  right,  we  reached  Beni 
Ferah  after  a  march  of  about  four  hours,  moving  always 
at  the  walking  pace  of  our  baggage  mules. 

This  journey  can  be  very  cold,  especially  upon  the 
slopes  of  the  rocky  hills.  Indeed,  on  one  occasion  in 
February  we  encountered  there  a  north-easterly  gale, 
bringing  with  it  sharp  scuds  of  sleet,  which  was  far  more 
suggestive  of  northern  Europe  in  winter  than  of  the 
fringe  of  the  so-called  burning  Sahara,  but  on  the  occasion 
of  our  first  visit  the  weather  was  normal,  that  is  to  say, 
sunny  and  warm,  without  any  approach  to  unpleasant 
heat. 

Soon  after  coming  into  sight  of  the  village,  standing 
upon  a  rocky  knoll,  with  its  gardens  spread  along  the 
course  of  a  stream  below  it,  we  passed  a  few  dwellings, 
forming  an  outlying  hamlet,  and  the  ruins  of  a  tower 
which  had  served  as  an  outwork  of  defence  in  the 
troublous  times  before  the  French  occupation  of  the 
country,  and  descending  sharply  to  the  bed  of  the  stream, 
which  barely  damped  the  fetlocks  of  our  mules,  we  ascended 


AMONG  THE   HILL-FOLK  39 

a  lane,  suggestive  of  a  flight  of  broad  steps,  round  the 
steep  side  of  the  knoll,  and  so  entered  the  lower  portion 
of  the  village,  through  the  narrow  streets  of  which  we 
wended  our  way  until,  having  passed  round  the  knoll 
upon  which  it  stands,  we  emerged  into  the  level  lower 
ground  beyond,  and  halted  at  a  cafe,  beside  which  a  vener- 
able olive  tree  has  afforded  shelter  from  the  sun  in  spring 
and  summer  to  the  members  of  the  "  djemaa,"  or  village 
council,  for  many  generations  gone.  At  the  cafe  we 
were  received  by  the  Ka'id,  a  somewhat  unprepossessing 
looking  individual,  whose  looks,  indeed,  did  not  belie 
him  for,  a  year  or  two  later,  finding  himself  in  some  doubt 
as  to  the  final  issue  of  the  great  war,  he  had  safeguarded 
such  public  funds  as  were  committed  to  his  charge  by 
departing  with  them  for  some  unknown  destination, 
whence  he  has  not  yet  returned,  and  another  now  reigns 
in  his  stead. 

Whatever  his  real  character  may  have  been,  however, 
he  received  us  cordially  enough,  and,  after  partaking  of 
the  usual  refreshment  at  the  cafe\  he  conducted  us  to  a 
room  in  his  own  house  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  from 
the  village,  which  he  reserved  for  such  visitors  as  came 
his  way — an  occasional  official  touring  in  the  district, 
or  the  not  very  welcome  gatherer  of  taxes. 

This  room  boasted  a  few  articles  of  European  furniture, 
mostly  in  a  state  of  disrepair,  such  as  a  bedstead,  a  table, 
and  a  chair  or  two,  so  that  in  a  very  few  minutes  we  had 
settled  down  in  our  new  surroundings  and  were  partaking 
of  a  fairly  well  cooked  meal  prepared  by  the  family  of 
our  host. 

It  was  apparent  the  moment  that  we  commenced  to 
explore  Beni  Ferah,  or  Ain  Zatout  as  the  natives  call 
the  place,  that  it  was  no  Arab  settlement  we  were 
examining.     Its  cluster  of  small  houses  huddled  together 


40       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

upon  the  steep  eastern  slope  of  the  rocky  knoll,  from  the 
summit  of  which  a  little  mosque  looks  down  some  couple 
of  hundred  feet  sheer  to  the  brook  below  it  to  the  west, 
were  very  different  from  the  dwellings  at  El  Kantara, 
for,  although  some  of  the  newer  buildings  scattered  about 
the  lower  ground  boasted  upper  stories  of  mud  brick, 
thus  displaying  a  certain  Arab  influence  in  their  con- 
struction, the  older  huts  on  the  hill-top  were  entirely  built 
of  rough  stone  in  the  style  which  we  soon  learned  to 
associate  with  a  Shawia  village,  while  the  merest  glance 
at  the  people  around  us  showed  us  clearly  that  we  were 
now  in  the  land  of  Berbers.  A  very  large  proportion  of 
fair  (sometimes  golden)  hair,  blue  eyes,  and  complexions, 
especially  in  the  case  of  young  children,  who  lack  the 
tan  produced  by  years  of  exposure  to  the  fierce  heat  of 
the  summer  sun,  often  paler  than  our  own,  were  the 
physical  characteristics  which  at  once  arrested  our  atten- 
tion, while  their  strange  Berber  tongue,  akin  to  that 
spoken  by  the  Kabyles  in  the  north,  bore  no  resemblance 
to  the  Arabic  of  the  nomads  and  of  the  oases  of  the 
Sahara. 

Another  outstanding  difference  between  Beni  Ferah 
and  an  Arab  settlement  immediately  forced  itself  upon 
our  notice.  Everywhere,  in  the  streets,  on  the  roofs, 
sitting  about  outside  their  houses,  coming  and  going 
without  attempt  at  concealment,  were  numbers  of 
women  and  girls. 

Although  the  Berbers  have  embraced  the  faith  of 
Islam,  their  women  enjoy  a  freedom  quite  unknown  to 
their  Arab  neighbours,  and  we  soon  found  that  we  should 
not  lack  opportunities  of  talking  to  them  and  watching 
them  at  their  various  occupations,  many  of  which,  for 
example,  pottery  making,  arc  carried  on  outside  their 
homes  in  the  full  view  of  the  passer-by.      This  pottery 


AMONG   THE   HILL-FOLK  41 

making  is  quaint  if  simple,   and  constitutes  a  survival 
of  a  very  early  art. 

Nearly  every  Shawia  woman  is  capable  of  manufac- 
turing such  earthenware  utensils  as  she  requires  for  her 
own  home,  but  at  Beni  Ferah,  where  earth  can  be  found 
which  is  peculiarly  suitable  to  the  potter,  a  large  number 
of  milk-bowls,  stew-pots,  large  flat  dishes,  etc.,  are  made 
by  the  women  for  sale  to  the  nomads  of  the  desert  in 
Biskra  market  and  in  the  neighbouring  oases. 

No  tools  whatever  are  used  in  their  manufacture,  the 
Berber  woman  simply  fashioning  the  moistened  clay 
with  her  hands,  attaining  really  remarkable  symmetry 
of  form  in  the  simple  models  she  adopts,  leaving  the 
pots  when  made  to  dry  in  the  sun.  When  nearly  dry 
she  polishes  them  with  a  snail-shell,  or  a  smooth  round 
pebble,  to  produce  an  even  surface  inside  and  out,  and 
proceeds,  in  many  cases,  to  decorate  them  with  criss- 
cross or  lozenge  patterns,  each  with  its  own  name  and 
significance,  by  means  of  a  reddish  earth  moistened  and 
applied  upon  a  blade  of  halfa  grass  doubled  back  to 
serve  as  a  brush  ;  and,  finally,  when  the  sun  has  hardened 
the  pots,  she  combines  with  one  or  two  friends,  who  have 
each  made  a  number  of  articles,  to  bake  her  pots  outside 
the  village,  where  no  danger  exists  of  setting  fire  to 
neighbouring  buildings. 

A  pile  of  stones  is  made  upon  the  ground,  the  pots 
being  carefully  laid  upon  the  heap  and  covered  with 
brushwood,  old  halfa  grass  sandals,  the  sweepings  of  the 
houses,  etc.,  which  is  then  ignited  and  the  fire  maintained 
for  a  couple  of  hours,  after  which  the  heated  vessels  are 
carefully  removed  with  the  aid  of  sticks,  and  a  coat  of 
shellac  is  applied  to  the  inside  of  them,  and  sometimes 
to  the  outside  as  well  to  form  a  very  rough  ornamentation, 
while  the  pots  are  still  too  hot  to  be  touched  by  hand. 


42       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

The  women  displayed  no  embarrassment  whatever 
when  we  approached  to  watch  them  plying  the  potter's 
trade,  and  we  soon  began  to  make  friends  among  them 
and  to  learn  something  of  their  methods.  The  Shawfa 
woman  has  a  very  shrewd  head  for  business  (indeed,  I 
would  rather  bargain  with  a  number  of  Arab  men  than 
with  one  obstinate  old  Berber  woman),  as  we  discovered 
when  collecting  specimens  of  pottery  at  Beni  Ferah. 

In  1913  we  obtained  as  many  pots  and  bowls  as  we 
wanted  at  prices  varying  from  ten  to  twenty-five  centimes 
each  ;  in  1919,  however,  "  owing  to  the  war,"  one  franc 
was  scornfully  refused  for  exactly  similar  pots  made  by 
the  same  woman  from  the  same  earth,  for  the  manufacture 
of  which  an  infinitesimal  quantity  of  shellac  was  the  only 
material  that  she  had  purchased,  and  this  despite  the 
fact  that,  should  I  not  buy  the  pot,  there  would  be  no 
one  to  follow  me  with  a  longer  purse,  or  a  more  gullible 
disposition,  with  whom  a  better  bargain  could  be  driven. 

War  profiteering  is  an  occupation  to  which  the  Berber 
women  have  taken  very  kindly  indeed  ! 

The  gardens  of  Beni  Ferah,  which  stretch  away  to  a 
considerable  distance  along  the  course  of  the  stream  to 
the  south-west  of  the  knoll  upon  which  the  main  part 
of  the  village  stands,  differ  considerably  from  those  of 
a  desert  oasis,  for  while  apricots,  walnuts,  olives,  figs, 
quinces,  etc.,  grow  in  profusion,  the  comparatively  few 
date  palms  are  of  an  inferior  quality  owing  to  the  greater 
altitude  of  the  village  above  the  sea  and  the  corresponding 
decrease  in  the  temperature. 

The  vegetable  plots  of  Beni  Ferah  are  much  more 
neatly  kept  than  those  of  El  Kantara,  for  the  Shawia 
are  better  gardeners  than  the  Arabs,  and  are  far  more 
numerous  owing  to  the  greater  annual  rainfall  they 
enjoy,   but  nevertheless  in  the  spring  and  summer  the 


A    SHAWIA    POTTER,    BF.NI    FKRAH. 


FIRING    POTTERY    AT    BEKI    FERAH. 


To  face  p.  42. 


AMONG   THE   HILL-FOLK  48 

gardens  of  Beni  Ferah  are  entirely  dependent  for  their 
water  supply  upon  their  stream,  often  reduced  to  very 
small  proportions  in  the  driest  part  of  the  year,  the 
resources  of  which  are  husbanded  with  the  greatest  care. 

The  system  of  irrigation  in  use  at  Beni  Ferah  is  that 
which  obtains  all  over  the  Aures,  and,  as  its  study  brought 
to  our  notice  a  very  quaint  method  of  measuring  time, 
we  may  examine  it  in  some  detail.  At  a  point  situated 
some  distance  above  the  gardens  the  river  is  tapped  by 
means  of  a  barrage,  often  consisting  merely  of  a  line  of 
boulders  so  placed  as  to  deflect  a  certain  amount  of  the 
stream  into  a  narrow  canal,  known  in  Algeria  as  a 
'*  seggia,"  by  means  of  which  it  is  conducted  through, 
or  rather  beside  and  slightly  above,  the  land  to  be  culti- 
vated, each  garden  possessing  its  own  branch  channel 
from  the  main  "  seggia  "  by  means  of  which  it  can  be 
flooded  in  its  turn.  This  simple  system  of  canals  must 
be  of  great  antiquity,  indeed  at  El  Kantara  and  in  certain 
parts  of  the  Aures  "  seggias  "  cut  in  the  solid  rock  dating 
from  the  time  of  the  Roman  occupation  of  Algeria  are 
in  constant  use  to-day,  while  disused  channels  at  an 
altitude  far  higher  than  any  now  employed  show  that 
in  ancient  times  the  country  enjoyed  a  greater  rainfall 
and,  in  consequence,  more  abundant  streams,  so  that  a 
considerably  larger  area  in  its  valleys  was  kept  under 
cultivation  than  is  possible  now. 

When  a  garden  is  purchased  the  buyer  must  acquire, 
also  by  purchase,  the  right  to  a  supply  of  water  according 
to  its  size ;  thus  an  extensive  property  may  require  the 
uninterrupted  flow  of  all  the  water  in  the  canal  which 
irrigates  it  for  one  whole  day  in  the  week,  while  another 
may  only  be  allowed  one  or  more  hours  of  irrigation 
in  the  same  period. 

The  stream  is  tapped  by  more  than  one  main  "  seggia," 


44       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

and  the  flow  of  water  is  turned  into  these  in  turn.  Upon 
the  day  on  which  any  given  "  seggia  "  is  to  be  used  the 
owners  of  the  various  gardens  situated  beside  it  assemble 
and,  repairing  to  a  point  overlooking  the  gardens,  proceed 
to  divide  the  flow  of  water  between  them. 

So  precious  is  the  liquid  that  even  a  few  moments 
more  or  less  in  the  period  of  its  flow  into  a  garden  is  of 
considerable  importance,  the  Shawia  therefore  mistrust 
the  employment  of  modern  watches,  whose  rate  can  be 
dishonestly  adjusted,  as  a  means  for  measuring  the 
time  for  which  each  owner  is  entitled  to  the  flow  of  the 
canal. 

Instead,  they  make  use  of  a  system  of  measuring  time 
which  must  be  of  very  great  antiquity,  and  has  probably 
persisted  in  this  land  of  survivals  for  countless  genera- 
tions in  company  with  other  strange  customs  of  the 
Shawia. 

A  member  of  the  village  council  accompanies  the 
landowners,  bringing  with  him  a  large  earthen  bowl,  or 
metal  pail,  of  water,  and  a  small  copper  bowl,  the  bottom 
of  which  is  perforated  with  a  very  minute  hole  ;  at  the 
moment  when  the  mud  wall  of  the  "  seggia  "  is  cut  through 
and  the  water  allowed  to  flow  into  the  first  garden  the 
councillor  carefully  places  the  perforated  bowl,  the 
property  of  the  village  council,  and  therefore  the  legal 
measure,  upon  the  water  in  the  pail,  watching  carefully 
for  it  to  sink,  which  it  will  do  in  about  fifteen  minutes, 
and  refloating  it  again  immediately  it  does  so.  Thus 
each  landowner  is  entitled  to  three,  four,  six,  or  eight, 
as  the  case  may  be,  sinkings  of  the  copper  bowl  rather 
than  to  any  given  number  of  actual  hours  or  portions  of 
an  hour,  and,  as  the  time  approaches  when  the  flow  of 
water  into  a  garden  is  to  cease,  a  neighbour  in  the  little 
group  of  landowners   will   shout   to  an  assistant   in   his 


AMONG   THE  HILL-FOLK  45 

garden  below  to  be  ready  upon  the  instant  to  cut  open 
an  inlet  into  his  land  in  the  side  of  the  "  seggia  "  as  soon 
as  the  bowl  has  sunk  for  the  last  time  in  the  series 
allotted  to  his  friend,  who  at  that  moment  will  cry  out 
to  a  man  in  his  garden  to  stem  *he  flow  of  water  he  has 
been  receiving  by  filling  up  with  mud  the  hole  through 
which  it  has  been  running. 

Each  landowner  being  present  in  person,  and  the  fact 
that  the  measuring  is  done  by  an  elder  with  the  official 
bowl,  appears  to  ensure  that  this  quaint  old-fashioned 
method  of  measuring  time  gives  satisfaction  to  all 
concerned. 

The  lack  of  a  sufficiency  of  water,  which  has  called 
into  use  the  water-clock  just  described,  also  tends  to 
maintain  in  existence  an  old  custom  connected  with 
prayer  for  rain  which  may  well  have  existed  in  Algeria 
for  countless  ages  before  the  arrival  of  the  Mohammedan 
faith,  and  which,  when  once  we  had  observed  it,  helped 
us  considerably  towards  commencing  our  investigations 
into  the  superstitions  of  the  Shav.ia. 

One  afternoon,  during  a  prolonged  period  of  drought, 
we  heard  the  shrill  piping  voices  of  young  children  singing 
in  the  streets,  and,  eager  to  ascertain  what  this  might 
mean,  we  hastened  into  the  village  to  find  a  number  of 
very  young  girls  parading  the  streets  carrying  with  them 
a  very  large  wooden  ladle,  such  as  is  used  in  every 
Shawia  home,  carefully  dressed  up  with  silk  kerchiefs 
and  silver  brooches,  earrings,  and  pendants  to  resemble 
a  woman's  head.  At  every  door  the  little  party  paused, 
singing  some  such  words  as  :  "  The  ladle  is  playing  in 
the  street ;  Oh,  clouds  that  are  on  high,  allow  the  rain 
to  fall,"  and  asking  alms  of  the  inmates,  who,  in  response, 
presented  them  with  dried  fruits,  semolina,  and  other 
foodstuffs   according   to   their   means.     After   the   whole 


46       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

village  has  been  paraded  the  children  take  the  food  to 
a  mosque  or,  in  some  villages,  to  a  sacred  tree  and  there 
cook  and  consume  it,  hoping  that  the  ceremony  they 
have  gone  through  will  cause  the  much  desired  blessing 
of  a  shower  of  rain  to  refresh  their  parent's  sun-baked 
crops. 

A  knowledge  of  this  ancient  superstitious  rite,  com- 
bined with  the  acquaintanceship  of  numerous  women, 
made  while  watching  them  at  their  potting  and  other 
crafts,  enabled  us  to  push  forward  to  some  extent  in  our 
inquiries  into  the  practice  of  magic  in  the  mountains, 
for  the  women  are  better  equipped  with  magical  lore 
than  are  the  men  of  the  Shawia — do  we  not  speak  of 
"  old  wives'  fables  "  in  this  country  even  now  ? — and 
when  once  the  traveller  possesses  a  knowledge  of  even 
a  very  few  magical  observances  he  will  find  it  far  easier 
to  increase  that  knowledge  than  it  had  been  to  commence 
to  acquire  it ;  for  the  confidence  of  the  natives  in  such 
matters  is  notoriously  hard  to  obtain  in  the  beginning 
of  investigations,  owing  to  their  dread  of  exposing  them- 
selves to  the  ridicule  of  a  thoughtless  listener. 

The  Shawia,  as  well  as  his  Arab  neighbour  of  the  low 
country,  is  extraordinarily  credulous  in  his  faith  in  the 
old  magical  observances  of  his  people,  observances,  such 
as  that  which  we  will  now  describe,  which  the  merest 
child  should  realize  are  part  and  parcel  of  a  system  of 
obtaining  money  under  false  pretences  which  flourishes 
like  a  green  bay  tree  in  every  community  in  which 
superstition  is  still  rife. 

In  Algeria  divorce  is  obtainable,  with  or  without  just 
cause,  in  the  simplest  manner  possible  ;  a  word  before 
the  Kadi  or  representative  of  Mohammedan  law,  a  small 
payment  to  the  wife  if  she  be  innocent  of  any  grounds 
lor  a  divorce,  and  the  wretehed  woman  returns  to  her 


AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  47 

parents,  or  joins  the  numerous  ranks  of  professional 
women  whose  existence  is  a  blot  upon  the  Shawia 
character.  The  women,  therefore,  are  very  ready  to 
avail  themselves  of  any  means,  magical  or  otherwise, 
which  may  enable  them  to  retain  the  affections  of  their 
husbands  when  once  they  show  signs  of  waning  ;  a  class 
of  person,  therefore,  has  been  called  into  being  to 
provide  these  means — for  a  fee. 

An  old  woman  of  this  class  who  possesses  the  requisite 
knowledge  of  magic,  or  whose  eloquence  can  persuade 
her  dupes  that  she  possesses  it,  known  as  a  "  Sorceress 
of  the  Moon,"  proceeds  at  dead  of  night  to  a  cemetery 
and  there  digs  up  the  bones  of  an  old  corpse,  which  she 
burns  upon  a  fire  with  some  incense  and  magical  herbs, 
at  the  same  time  invoking  the  aid  of  the  Almighty  in  her 
impious  task,  for  the  desecration  of  a  grave  is  regarded  with 
the  utmost  horror  by  all  right-minded  Mohammedans. 

She  then  stains  one  of  her  eyelids  only  with  antimony, 
one  lip  with  walnut  bark,  and  one  hand  and  one  foot 
with  henna.  This  done  the  seeker  after  the  philtre, 
upon  whose  nerves  the  eerie  environment  of  a  cemetery 
by  night  has  by  this  time  begun  to  tell  considerably, 
will  be  horrified  to  notice  that  the  moon  has  left  the 
heavens  and  commenced  to  descend  towards  a  dish  of 
water  placed  ready  to  receive  it,  the  sorceress  meantime 
rolling  in  frenzy  upon  the  ground  and  calling  upon  the 
moon  to  hasten  in  its  descent,  the  ground  around  trembling 
the  while  in  the  convulsions  of  an  earthquake.  The 
moon  eventually  enters  the  water  in  the  dish,  "  growling 
like  a  camel  whose  load  is  being  placed  upon  its  back," 
to  use  the  words  of  one  of  my  informants,  and  producing 
in  the  water  a  sort  of  foam  which  remains  after,  in  response 
to  vigorous  invocations  on  the  part  of  the  sorceress 
the  moon  has  returned  to  its  proper  place  in  the  firma- 


48       AMONG   THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

merit  and  the  earthquake  has  ceased  to  disturb  the 
calm  of  the  night. 

This  foam  is  carefully  skimmed  from  the  water  by  the 
sorceress,  and  subsequently  dried,  when  she  retails  small 
quantities  of  it  at  very  high  prices  to  a  wife  who  desires 
to  mix  it  secretly  with  her  husband's  food  in  order  to 
retain  his  affections. 

This  love  philtre  is  merely  one  example  of  quite  a 
series  of  similar  observances,  many  of  them  of  a  highly 
disgusting  nature,  which  are  practised  to  this  day  in  the 
Aures  and  the  desert,  although  so  reprehensible  are 
they  considered  by  the  more  reputable  of  the  natives 
that  a  sorceress  who  indulges  in  them  would  almost 
certainly  be  killed  should  she  be  caught  in  the  nefarious 
act.  The  poor  women  who  allow  themselves  to  be  duped 
in  this  way,  and  who  firmly  believe  that  the  moon  does 
descend  into  the  bowl,  probably  only  do  so  because  the 
environment  of  the  cemetery  and  the  mystic  antics  of 
the  sorceress  have  combined  to  frighten  them  literally 
out  of  their  wits,  so  that  they  are  quite  prepared  to  see 
the  moon  perform  any  weird  evolution  which  the  old 
hag  may  tell  them  it  is  performing  without  any  regard 
to  the  possibility  or  otherwise  of  evolution  itself. 

During  our  first  stay  at  Beni  Ferah  we  were  lodged 
in  the  house  of  the  Kaid,  but  upon  a  later  visit  to  this 
Berber  village  we  stayed  in  the  school  which  has  been 
established  for  some  years  at  Beni  Ferah,  and  which  is 
the  residence  of  the  only  European  in  the  place,  the 
schoolmaster.  This  gentleman,  whose  solitary  existence 
in  the  midst  of  Shawia  culture  must  be  trying  in  the 
extreme,  welcomed  us  most  kindly,  and,  indeed,  I  fancy 
he  is  genuinely  delighted  to  receive  a  European  traveller, 
whose  presence  gives  him  an  opportunity  of  exchanging 
ideas  with  a  member  of  civilized  society  which  does  not 


AMONG   THE  HILL-FOLK  49 

often  come  his  way,  save  during  his  short  periods  of 
leave  at  Constantine  or  some  other  large  town. 

While  staying  as  the  guest  of  the  schoolmaster  we  sought 
to  excuse  ourselves  from  the  many  invitations  to  meals 
which  the  Shawia,  by  no  means  less  liberal  in  their  hospi- 
tality than  the  Arabs  of  the  plains,  were  continually 
pressing  upon  us,  for  these  meals  are  somewhat  trying 
functions,  but  our  native  friends  would  take  no  refusal. 
If  we  could  scarcely  leave  our  European  host  to  dine 
with  them  in  their  houses,  then  the  meal  should  be  sent 
down  to  us — but  we  would  kindly  remember  to  return 
the  dishes  in  which  it  was  sent !  Thus  we  were  enter- 
tained, royally  enough  according  to  Berber  ideas,  whether 
we  wished  it  or  not,  and  upon  some  occasions  we  were 
obliged  to  accept  offers  of  hospitality  in  the  village 
itself. 

Invitations  such  as  these  are  apt  to  test  the  endurance 
of  the  European  to  a  considerable  extent,  for  not  only 
must  the  guest  attack  each  and  every  dish  placed  before 
him,  but  he  must  do  so  with  a  heartiness  quite  foreign  to 
the  dinner  tables  of  civilized  society.  As  every  traveller 
in  the  Aures,  if  he  stays  long  enough  to  make  acquain- 
tances among  the  natives,  may  expect  to  partake  of  many 
meals  with  the  Shawia,  we  may  perhaps  describe  the 
dishes  usually  placed  before  a  guest  by  a  middle-class 
family  in  the  hills. 

The  first  course  consists  of  a  broth  of  mutton,  goat, 
or  chicken,  so  strongly  flavoured  with  red  pepper  as  to 
be  practically  uneatable  by  any  one  who  is  not  accus- 
tomed to  dishes  of  the  very  hottest  kind  ;  flat  loaves 
of  unleavened  bread  accompany  the  soup.  This  will 
often  be  followed  by  a  stew  of  meat  and  dried  apricots 
or  plums  (a  dish  which,  when  well  prepared,  is  quite 
palatable),  or,  in  the  case  of  more  modest  repasts  con- 

4 


50       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

sisting  of  two  courses  only,  by  the  national  dish  of 
Algeria,  meat  and  "  kuskus." 

The  "  kuskus,"  which  is  simply  semolina  steamed  in 
a  home-made  pottery  "  double  cooker  "  in  vapours  arising 
from  the  meat  stewing  in  a  bowl  beneath  it,  is  served 
up  in  a  large  bowl,  fragments  of  meat  garnishing  its  surface, 
which  is  placed  on  the  ground  before  the  guests,  each  of 
whom  is  provided  with  a  wooden  spoon,  and  sometimes, 
in  deference  to  western  ideas,  with  a  plate  as  well. 

While  "  kuskus "  can  be  perfectly  wholesome,  and 
even  palatable  if  cooked  simply,  it  is  very  frequently 
rendered  almost  uneatable  by  the  addition  of  quantities 
of  butter  that  has  been  stored  until  rancid  in  a  goatskin, 
in  which  condition  it  is  beloved  of  the  natives.  The 
traveller,  therefore,  soon  learns  many  an  artifice  by  means 
of  which  he  can  convey  to  his  host  the  impression  that 
he  is  consuming  more  of  the  dish  than  is  actually  the 
case,  for  the  fullest  justice  must  be  done  to  the  meal, 
and  every  possible  sign  of  repletion  should  be  exhibited 
after  it.  Dessert,  consisting  of  figs,  or  of  honey  and 
walnuts  (to  be  eaten  together),  with  cups  of  black  coffee 
terminate  the  repast. 

The  meal  which  I  have  described  above  is  of  the  kind 
which  we  were  offered  daily  during  our  wanderings  in 
the  hills,  but,  as  we  shall  find  later  on,  far  more  elaborate 
banquets  are  provided  by  the  richer  chieftains  of  the 
Aures  and  the  desert. 

But  meals  were  not  the  only  functions  to  which  we 
were  invited  at  Beni  Ferah,  for  we  enjoyed  there,  during 
a  later  visit,  several  opportunities  of  attending  wedding 
ceremonies  in  the  capacity  of  invited  guests,  opportunities 
which  revealed  fewer  differences  than  we  had  anticipated 
between  the  weddings  of  the  Arabs  of  El  Kantara  and 
those  of  their   Shawfa  neighbours  in  the  hills.     Let  us 


AMONG   THE   HILL-FOLK  51 

choose  for  description  a  wedding  scene  at  Beni  Ferah 
as  typical  of  similar  ceremonies  all  over  the  massif. 

One  gloriously  sunny  afternoon  we  proceeded,  in 
response  to  a  pressing  invitation,  to  an  open  space  amid 
the  houses  on  the  hillside,  where  we  found  assembled  a 
very  numerous  company  of  men,  women,  and  children, 
several  hundreds  at  least  squatting  upon  the  ground, 
or  perched  upon  any  such  point  of  vantage  as  a  ruined 
wall  or  the  flat  roofs  of  the  surrounding  houses,  listening 
to  the  weird  strains  of  a  couple  of  tom-toms  and  an  oboe 
played  with  extraordinary  vigour  by  three  musicians 
hired  for  the  purpose,  stringed  instruments  being 
unknown  in  the  hills,  before  whom  a  professional  danseuse 
from  the  valley  of  the  Wed  Abdi  moved  slowly  backwards 
and  forwards,  moving  her  feet,  hands,  and  abdominal 
muscles  in  the  singularly  ungraceful  movements  of  a 
native  dance. 

Many  of  the  people  present  had  merely  turned  up  to 
look  on,  but  those  who  were  guests  at  the  ceremony  had 
donned  clean  garments  for  the  occasion,  the  women  folk 
being  especially  resplendent  in  clean  cotton  dress  material 
and  glittering  with  every  ounce  of  locally  made  silver 
jewellery  which  they  could  obtain,  their  bright  silken 
head  scarves  adding  a  fine  note  of  colour  to  the  scene, 
which,  from  its  very  setting  upon  the  sunlit  hillside 
with  a  panorama  of  steep  juniper-studded  slopes  and 
towering  rocky  peaks  behind  it,  was  brilliant  enough  in 
its  simple  splendour. 

Accommodated  with  halfa-grass  mats  upon  which  to 
sit,  we  took  our  places  among  the  crowd,  and  listening 
to  the  strains  of  the  "  music,"  the  weird  tremulous  cries 
of  the  women,  and  the  occasional  firing  of  blank  charges 
from  muzzle-loading  guns,  infrequent  owing  to  a  difficulty 
in  obtaining  the  powder  which  the  native  so  dearly  loves 


52       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

to  hear  "  speak  "  upon  festal  occasions  of  all  kinds,  we 
awaited  the  time  when  the  bride  should  be  brought  from 
her  home,  a  few  hundred  yards  distant,  to  the  house  of 
the  bridegroom,  before  which  we  were  sitting.  Some 
considerable  time  elapsed  before  any  movement  was 
made  to  bring  her,  the  crowd  meantime  being  engrossed 
in  the  antics  of  the  professional  dancer,  whose  swaying 
form  now  seemed  to  endeavour  to  symbolize  the  bashful- 
ness  of  the  bride-to-be,  and  now  the  voluptuous  passion 
of  the  young  wife. 

At  every  pause  in  her  dance,  and  often  even  as  she 
moved,  male  members  of  the  assembled  crowd  came 
forward  and  thrust  their  offerings,  in  the  form  of  French 
notes,  under  her  turban  upon  her  brow — she  must  have 
been  carrying  as  much  as  a  hundred  francs  in  this 
manner  upon  several  occasions,  although  she  frequently 
removed  the  money  and  concealed  it  in  her  garments 
as  she  danced — while  the  musicians,  too,  came  in  for 
very  generous  treatment  from  their  audience.  The 
crowd  during  this  part  of  the  ceremony  was  quiet  enough, 
the  only  incident  which  occurred  being  a  fight  between 
two  small  girls,  one  of  whom  was  carrying  upon  her  back 
a  child,  probably  her  brother,  who  gravely  maintained 
his  jockey-like  seat  until  the  conflict  had  been  brought 
to  a  close,  amid  the  tears  and,  it  must  be  confessed, 
oaths  of  the  combatants  by  the  interference  of  their 
relatives. 

The  bridegroom  had  meantime  attracted  much  the 
same  amount  of  attention  as  does  the  bridegroom  at 
an  English  wedding,  but,  conscious  of  his  own  lack  of 
importance,  perhaps,  he  was  not  even  present  for  more 
than  a  very  few  minutes  at  the  dance !  A  wedding 
among  the  Shawia  is  a  ceremony  for  the  bride,  and  the 
bridegroom   is  expected   to  figure  in   it  scarcely  at  all ; 


AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  53 

indeed,  if,  while  wedding  music  resounds  in  a  village  of 
the  Aures,  the  traveller  should  encounter  a  group  of 
young  men  all  dressed  in  their  best,  wandering  from 
cafe  to  cafe,  and  appearing  to  be  ignorant  of  the  fact 
that  anything  unusual  is  going  forward,  he  may  safely 
assume  that  this  is  the  bridegroom  and  his  particular 
friends,  whom  custom  compels  to  hold  aloof  from  the 
ceremony.  At  length,  after  two  or  three  female  members 
of  the  bridegroom's  family  had  joined  in  the  dancing 
and  had  been  greeted  with  cries  of  encouragement  from 
the  women,  but  with  no  pecuniary  offerings  from  the 
men,  they  being  respectable  members  of  the  community, 
a  move  was  made  to  fetch  the  bride.  The  musicians 
led  the  procession,  followed  by  a  mule,  across  whose 
saddle  was  spread  a  bright  red  rug,  and  behind  the  mule 
came  a  number  of  gaily-dressed  women,  singing  as  they 
went. 

We  moved  with  the  crowd  in  the  wake  of  this  little 
procession.  Upon  arrival  at  the  cottage  of  the  bride, 
for  she  came  of  humble  parentage,  the  musicians,  the 
mule,  and  the  crowd  came  to  a  halt,  only  the  female 
attendants  who  had  been  singing  and  the  professional 
dancer  entering  the  house,  my  wife  accompanying  them 
at  the  request  of  the  bride's  relations. 

In  the  semi-darkness  of  the  little  house  she  found  a 
crowd  of  women  and  children,  who  filled  the  place  to 
overflowing ;  some  of  the  women  singing,  some  dancing, 
others  emitting  the  strange  quivering  cry  which  is  their 
note  of  rejoicing  at  festivals.  In  the  midst  of  this  turmoil 
the  bride,  a  child  of  about  twelve  years  old,  was  being 
bedecked  with  new  garments,  the  gift  of  the  bridegroom, 
for  her  journey  to  her  new  home. 

The  poor  child  was  far  too  overcome  by  the  atten- 
tions she  was  receiving  to  take  much  notice  of  the  gift 


54       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

of  a  necklet  of  coral,  so  dear  to  the  hearts  of  Shawia 
beauties,  which  my  wife  had  brought  for  her,  but  it  was 
duly  placed  around  her  neck,  to  the  envy  of  her  friends, 
and  at  last  she  was  carried  out,  a  blaze  of  gaily  coloured 
silks  and  muslins,  her  face  hidden  by  a  veil,  and  placed 
upon  the  mule,  a  boy  of  about  three  or  four  years  old 
being  made  to  ride  upon  the  saddle  in  front  of  her,  a 
symbol  of  the  hoped-for  sons  to  come. 

The  short  procession  to  the  bridegroom's  house  was 
accompanied  by  the  firing  of  guns,  much  singing,  and 
loud  cries.  Upon  arrival  at  her  future  husband's  door 
the  bride  was  lifted  from  the  mule  and  carried  in,  breaking 
upon  the  lintel  as  she  went  an  egg,  that  emblem  of  a 
fertility  which  alone  can  ensure  her  a  protracted  residence 
in  her  new  home. 

Once  inside,  the  bride  is  received  by  female  members 
of  her  husband's  family  with  much  noise  and  dancing, 
but  the  bridegroom  himself  only  returns  home  late  in 
the  evening,  entering  his  house  as  unobtrusively  as  if 
merely  coming  in  from  some  everyday  excursion  or  task. 
What,  may  we  ask  ourselves,  are  the  thoughts  of  the 
bride  as  she  enters  thus  upon  her  married  life  ? 

Surely,  if  the  poor  child  is  not  too  overwhelmed  by 
the  noise  around  her  to  think  of  the  future  at  all,  they 
must  be  some  such  thoughts  as  these  :  "  How  long  before, 
unwanted  though  unoffending,  I  shall  pass  out  in  ignominy 
from  the  house  in  which  I  am  acclaimed  to-day  ?  " 


CHAPTER    III 
FROM    AFRICA    TO    EUROPE 

FROM   BENT   FERAH   TO  THE   LAND   OF  THE  NOMADS — THE   LEGEND   OF  THE 

OULED    ZIANE A   TALE    OF   BORDER   WAR — AN    ARAB    CHIEF    OF   THE 

TRADITIONAL     TYPE — DIRT     OF     THE     NOMADS CARPET     MAKING 

THE    RE6T-HOUSE    AT    DJEMORA — FROM    AFRICA    TO    EUROPE    IN    ONE 

DAY'S    MARCH — "  THE    CAPITAL   OF   THE    AURES  " LEGEND    OF    THE 

FOUNDATION  OF  MENAA — A  MODEL  VILLAGE — AN  ANCIENT  FORM 
OF  MILL — THE  SHOEMAKERS  OF  MENAA — VALUE  OF  ACQUAINTANCE 
WITH   THE   WOMEN — A  SAINTLY   LUNATIC. 

AT  the  conclusion  of  our  first  visit  to  Beni  Ferah 
we  moved  on  over  the  hills  to  the  oasis  of  Djemora, 
which  lies  at  the  foot  of  the  Aures  massif,  some  six  miles 
in  a  direct  line  to  the  south,  our  object  being  to  compare 
some  of  the  customs  we  had  noted  among  the  Shawia 
with  similar  ones  obtaining  among  the  nomad  Arab 
inhabitants  of  the  plains  around  Djemora. 

The  journey  over  the  hills,  along  a  track  difficult  enough 
for  loaded  mules  in  1913  but  now  considerably  improved, 
afforded  us  many  fine  views  of  mountain  and  desert, 
of  which  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  was  the  panorama 
of  the  large  oasis  of  Djemora,  with  its  thousands  of  palms 
on  either  side  of  a  broad  river-bed,  down  which  flows 
such  of  the  waters  of  the  Wed  Abdi  as  are  not  absorbed 
by  "  seggia  "  irrigation  higher  up  its  valley ;  the  valley 
itself,  bounded  on  either  hand  by  rugged  barren  hills, 
being  exceptionally  beautiful,  for  as  the  fiery  desert 
sun  sinks  in  the  west  its  parting  rays  illumine  the  hills 
till  they  glow  in  brilliant  shades  of  pink  and  red,  fading 

65 


56       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

in  a  few  minutes  to  purple  as  the  mists  of  evening  fall 
upon  the  land. 

The  oasis  of  Djemora  is  the  headquarters  of  the  Ouled 
Ziane  nomad  Arabs,  who  wander  with  their  flocks  of 
sheep  and  goats  over  the  desert  to  the  south-west  of 
the  Aures  in  the  winter,  and  on  the  plateau  to  the  north 
of  the  massif  in  the  great  heat  of  the  summer,  when  the 
plains  cannot  provide  even  the  scanty  pasture  required 
by  these  hardy  animals  ;  that  is  to  say,  these  nomads 
own  the  gardens  at  Djemora,  from  which  they  obtain 
their  yearly  supply  of  dates,  but,  camping  out  with  their 
flocks,  they  are  seldom  to  be  seen  in  any  numbers  in  the 
hamlets  of  the  oasis,  save  in  the  autumn,  when  they  come 
in  to  pick  the  date  harvest. 

Concerning  the  early  history  of  the  tribe  we  heard  a 
quaint  legend.  Somewhere  in  the  fifteenth  or  sixteenth 
century,  when  the  Ouled  Ziane  inhabited  a  part  of 
Morocco,  a  small  party  of  men  were  sent  out  to  bring  in 
a  bride  from  a  neighbouring  tribe.  On  their  way  home 
with  her  they  encountered  a  demon,  or,  as  it  is  called  in 
Arabic,  a  "  jinn,"  whose  particular  form  of  malevolence 
consisted  in  eloping  with  brides,  and  who  promptly 
flew  away  with  the  lady.  Her  escort,  ashamed  to  return 
home  without  their  charge,  turned  their  steps  eastward, 
and,  after  much  wandering  about  in  an  effort  to  earn  a 
living  as  professional  herdsmen,  they  finally  married  and 
settled  in  eastern  Algeria  and  founded  that  portion  of 
the  Ouled  Ziane  tribe  which,  in  course  of  time,  became 
masters  of  the  country  round  Djemora,  after  much 
fighting  with  the  Shawfa  Berbers  of  the  Wed  Abdi,  who, 
not  without  reason,  resented  the  arrival  of  strange  nomad 
neighbours  whose  presence  would  probably  be  a  constant 
menace  to  the  security  of  their  own  homes  and  crops. 
This  legend  we  learned  from  the  old  Kaid  of  Djemora, 


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FROM  AFRICA  TO   EUROPE  57 

Basha  Bashir,  our  host  in  the  oasis,  who,  as  he  became 
better  acquainted  with  us  during  successive  visits, 
delighted  to  spend  his  evenings  in  regaling  us  with  stories 
of  the  past. 

Many  of  these  referred  to  members  of  his  own  family, 
for  he  came  of  ancient  stock,  and  to  their  doings  in  the 
brave  days  of  old,  when  raid  and  counter-raid  between 
Arab  and  Shawia  were  unchecked  by  any  foreign 
authority. 

Upon  one  occasion,  in  years  gone  by,  both  the  nomads 
and  the  Berbers  became  tired  of  their  never-ending  feuds 
and  decided  to  settle  a  boundary  dispute  by  means  of 
a  shooting-match  instead  of  by  force  of  arms  in  actual 
conflict. 

Eight  champions  were  selected  by  either  side,  a  mark 
was  set  up  upon  a  stone,  and  the  marksmen  loaded  their 
long-barrelled  flint-lock  muskets,  which  are  to  be  found 
to-day  with  their  woodwork  elaborately  inlaid  with 
silver  in  every  out-of-the-way  village  of  the  desert  and 
the  hills.  The  Shawia  team  fired  first ;  not  a  man  hit 
the  mark.  The  Arabs  followed,  resting  their  muskets 
upon  boulders  and  using  every  aid  to  steady  shooting 
that  they  could  think  of.  Their  first  seven  marksmen 
failed  as  miserably  as  their  opponents.  Then  came  the 
turn  of  their  last  champion,  the  grandfather  of  old  Basha 
Bashir.  Scorning  anything  in  the  nature  of  a  rifle-rest, 
he  called  for  his  favourite  mare,  and  climbing  into  the 
saddle  with  the  usual  muttered  "  Bismillah,"  without 
which  invocation  of  the  Deity  no  pious  Arab  mounts 
his  horse,  he  retired  to  a  considerable  distance  behind 
the  firing-point  and  spurred  his  mare  towards  the  target 
as  hard  as  her  flying  hoofs  could  carry  her.  Before 
reaching  the  firing-point  he  rose  in  his  stirrups  and, 
without  checking  his  mount  in  her  mad  career,  fired  over 


58       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

her  head.  Fair  and  square  he  hit  the  mark,  and  the 
decision  in  the  boundary  dispute  went  to  the  Ouled 
Ziane ! 

It  is  perfectly  true  that  certain  Arabs  of  the  plains  do 
display  remarkable  skill  in  shooting  from  the  saddle  when 
going  at  speed — I  have  seen  it  among  the  Haouamed 
near  Bou  Saada,  and  described  it  in  a  previous  work — 
and  it  is  also  true  that  as  marksmen  in  the  ordinary  sense 
of  the  word  they  perform  extremely  badly.  It  is  possible, 
therefore,  that  a  substratum  of  truth  underlies  the  tale 
of  the  exploit  of  Basha's  grandfather,  an  exploit  which 
has  doubtless  lost  none  of  its  glamour  in  the  lapse  of 
time. 

Whenever  we  visited  Djemora  before  the  war  we  stayed 
as  the  guests  of  the  old  Kaid,  in  the  four-roomed  house 
of  mud-brick  which  he  had  erected  opposite  to  his  own 
residence  for  the  use  of  passing  officials,  our  meals  being 
sent  in  to  us  by  his  wives.  Basha  Bashir  himself  is  a 
typical  Arab  gentleman  of  the  old  school,  a  school  which 
does  not  speak  French,  nor  visit  the  Casino  at  Biskra, 
nor  indulge  in  any  of  the  pleasures  of  civilization  which 
are  daily  finding  more  and  more  favour  among  the 
younger  generation  of  wealthy  chiefs. 

Seventy  years  of  age,  he  sits  his  horse  like  a  boy  of 
twenty,  a  fact  that  is  doubtless  attributable  to  the 
simple,  almost  Spartan,  life  he  leads,  seldom  leaving  his 
oasis,  and  never  indulging  in  the  late  hours  and  gaiety 
of  Biskra.  As  hospitable  as  the  traditional  Arab  is  sup- 
posed to  be,  he  is  deservedly  popular  with  those  few 
Europeans  who  have  made  his  acquaintance,  while  the 
fact  that  he  comes  of  ancient  lineage,  and  that  he  possesses 
sound  judgment  combined  with  force  of  character,  have 
long  since  gained  him,  to  a  very  remarkable  extent,  the 
respect  and  affection  of  his  tribe. 


FROM  AFRICA  TO   EUROPE  59 

Living  comfortably  enough  in  the  Kaid's  house,  the 
interior  of  which  is  grotesquely  ornamented  with  life- 
size  wall  paintings  of  French  and  native  officers  covered 
with  decorations,  and  with  some  very  realistic,  if  crude, 
hunting  scenes,  the  work  of  an  Arab  from  a  town,  we 
spent  our  time  exploring  the  oasis  of  Djemora. 

Like  so  many  oases  of  the  desert,  its  little  mud-brick 
huts  are  built  in  scattered  clusters  rather  than  in  one 
large  village,  a  fact  that  rather  adds  to  the  beauty  of 
the  place,  which,  as  I  have  pointed  out,  is  as  remarkable 
as  that  of  any  oasis  to  be  found  on  the  edge  of  the  desert, 
and  is  enhanced  by  the  glimpse  of  snow-capped  hills 
visible  far  up  the  Abdi  valley.  But  the  curse  of  Djemora 
is  its  dirt. 

Despite  the  existence  of  a  plentiful  warm  spring  in 
the  oasis  (which  is  used  to  a  considerable  extent  for 
washing  garments),  the  natives  of  Djemora  appear  never 
to  bathe  their  persons.  We  had  ample  opportunity  of 
observing  this  fact,  for,  in  our  endeavour  to  ingratiate 
ourselves  with  the  people,  and  also  to  lead  up  to  an 
inquiry  into  native  medicine  and  surgery  which  will  be 
described  in  due  course,  we  always  placed  the  contents 
of  our  travelling  medicine-chest  at  the  disposal  of  the 
sick  and  injured,  patients  often  coming  from  miles  round 
to  make  use  of  it.  In  an  enormous  number  of  cases  the 
malady  seemed  to  have  been  caused,  or  at  least  much 
aggravated,  by  dirt.  Upon  one  occasion,  when  my 
wife  suggested  that  a  child  suffering  from  a  skin  disease 
should  be  washed  before  we  attempted  to  treat  it,  its 
mother  exclaimed  :  "  What !  With  water  ?  "  roared 
with  laughter  and  departed,  taking  the  filthy  infant  with 
her,  never  to  expose  it  to  the  risk  of  a  washing  by 
bringing  it  to  us  again ! 
There  seems  to  be  a  certain  reason  for  the  personal 


60       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

dirtiness  of  the  Ouled  Ziane.  As  we  have  seen,  although 
a  few  members  of  the  tribe  inhabit  the  comparatively 
well- watered  oasis  of  Djemora,  the  people  are  really 
nomads,  who  for  generations  have  wandered  in  wastes 
where  water  in  sufficient  quantities  for  drinking  and 
cooking  is  so  hard  to  obtain  that  none  can  be  spared  for 
washing,  so  that  the  Ouled  Ziane  have  never  acquired 
the  habits  of  personal  cleanliness  which  to  most  peoples, 
even  the  savagest,  are  as  a  second  nature. 

We  found  a  considerable  similarity  between  the  customs 
and  beliefs  of  the  Ouled  Ziane  and  those  of  the  Shawia 
of  Beni  Ferah  and  other  villages  of  the  Aures,  doubtless 
owing  to  the  fact  that  the  nomads  frequently  choose 
their  wives  among  the  pretty  daughters  of  their  fair- 
haired  neighbours ;  but  a  comparison  of  them  would 
be  out  of  place  in  any  but  strictly  technical  work,  and 
the  few  arts  and  crafts  observed  at  Djemora  were  identical 
with  those  noted  in  the  Shawia  settlements  of  the  hills. 

One  art,  however,  we  found  to  be  specially  well 
developed  by  one  individual  at  Djemora,  and  that  was 
the  manufacture  of  carpets.  The  individual  in  question, 
with  the  assistance  of  his  wife,  has  earned  quite  an 
extensive  reputation  throughout  a  large  portion  of  the 
Aures  massif  as  a  maker  of  those  woollen  rugs  upon  which 
wealthy  natives  delight  to  offer  an  honoured  guest  a  seat, 
and  which  arc  so  much  sought  after,  and  often  dearly 
bought,  by  tourists  in  the  towns. 

The  wealthy  native  does  not  visit  the  carpet-maker's 
house  and  choose  his  rug  from  a  pile  placed  ready  for  his 
inspection,  for  the  maker  holds  no  stock  of  his  wares. 
Instead,  the  rich  man  invites  the  maker  and  his  wife 
to  his  house  or  tent,  provides  them  with  accommodation, 
states  how  much  wool  he  himself  has  available  for  weaving 
the  rug,  and  inquires  what  dyes  he  must  provide.     These 


FROM  AFRICA  TO  EUROPE  61 

dyes  were  formerly  all  of  native  preparation  (madder, 
which  grows  locally,  was  used  for  red),  but  now,  unfortu- 
nately, cheap  imported  dyes  are  very  rapidly  taking  the 
place  of  the  home-prepared  article,  with  consequent 
deterioration  in  the  quality  of  the  rugs  produced. 

The  necessary  wool  and  dyes  having  been  provided 
by  the  prospective  owner  of  the  rug,  a  price  is  arranged 
for  the  labour  (and  a  high  one  it  sometimes  is),  and  the 
carpet-maker  insists  upon  his  patron  killing  a  lamb  or 
a  kid  in  order  to  celebrate  with  a  feast  the  commence- 
ment of  the  work.  The  carpet  is  actually  woven  by  the 
wife  upon  the  very  simple  vertical  handloom  to  be  found 
in  every  tent  or  Berber  home  for  the  manufacture  of 
burnouses.  The  woman  sits  upon  the  side  of  the  rug 
which,  when  finished,  will  be  upon  the  ground,  while  her 
husband,  squatting  upon  the  other  side,  the  "  right  side 
up,"  of  the  loom,  directs  with  a  stick  the  insertion  of  the 
little  strands  of  coloured  wool  which  form  the  pile,  care- 
fully controlling  the  number  of  strands  of  each  colour 
used  in  order  to  preserve  the  accuracy  of  the  design  he 
is  thus  causing  to  be  worked  in.  Enjoying  the  hospitality 
of  their  patron,  the  carpet-makers  not  unnaturally  spend 
some  time  upon  their  task,  and,  when  it  is  completed, 
they  usually  demand  a  further  celebration  in  the  form 
of  a  roasted  lamb. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  well-made  rugs  are  not 
obtained  too  cheaply  even  by  the  natives  themselves, 
but  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  no  native  pays  anything 
like  such  prices  as  I  have  heard  asked  for  old  and  dirty 
mats  by  persons  who  live,  and  live  very  handsomely, 
upon  those  people  who  will  not  try  to  ascertain  the 
current  prices  of  things  in  a  country  which  they  are 
visiting  for  the  first  time. 

During  our  last  visit  to  Djemora,  though  we  frequently 


62       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  old  Basha  Bashir,  we  stayed 
at  a  "  rest-house,"  or  bordj,  which  the  French  authorities 
have  recently  erected  there,  as  well  as  at  various  points 
upon  projected  roads  through  the  Aures,  and  which  offer 
a  greater  degree  of  comfort  to  the  traveller  than  he  can 
expect  in  the  home  of  any  but  the  very  wealthiest  chiefs. 
These  bordj s,  where  they  exist,  are  I  believe  all  built 
upon  the  same  plan,  though  my  travels  in  the  central 
valleys  of  the  Aures  in  1914  were  accomplished  before 
their  completion  there.  That  at  Djemora,  and  also  at 
Menaa,  consists  of  a  courtyard,  containing  a  shelter  for 
the  wanderer's  beasts,  from  which  courtyard  lead  off 
some  half-dozen  bedrooms,  all  furnished  with  European 
beds,  sheets,  and  blankets,  washstands,  mirrors,  and 
chairs,  and  a  dining-room  and  sitting-room,  both  supplied 
with  the  necessary  tables  and  comfortable  chairs,  as 
well  as  a  kitchen  containing  French  cooking  utensils, 
tableware  and  glass,  and  a  room  for  the  Arab  caretaker 
of  the  bordj. 

The  caretakers  are  men  chosen  for  their  reliability 
and  for  a  knowledge  of  simple  European  cooking,  so 
that  the  traveller  upon  arriving  at  one  of  these  rest-houses 
can  rely  upon  obtaining  accommodation  more  comfortable 
than  he  could  find  in  a  most  elaborate  camp,  and  also 
meals  as  eatable  as  those  to  be  had  in  many  an 
up-country  inn. 

Indeed,  I  have  the  greatest  reason  for  gratitude  to 
the  French  for  having  constructed  the  bordj  at  Djemora, 
for,  on  the  occasion  of  our  last  visit  to  the  village,  my 
wife  contracted  a  severe  attack  of  Spanish  influenza, 
which  might  easily  have  ended  fatally  in  any  of  the  bare 
stone  huts  we  are  compelled  to  occupy  for  want  of  better 
accommodation  in  the  remote  Shawfa  hamlets  of  the 
Aures. 


FROM  AFRICA  TO   EUROPE  68 

Influenza  has  wrought  terrible  havoc  at  Djemora,  for 
its  poor  ill-nourished  inhabitants  seem  to  be  able  to 
offer  little  resistance  to  the  scourge,  so  that  the  cemetery, 
which  lies  between  the  Raid's  house  and  the  largest 
hamlet  in  the  oasis,  very  greatly  increased  in  size  when 
the  complaint  made  its  great  attack  upon  the  Ouled 
Ziane. 

When  we  left  Djemora  in  1913  to  resume  our  investi- 
gations among  the  Shawia,  we  moved  on  up  the  valley 
of  its  stream  to  Menaa,  some  miles  to  the  north-east,  thus 
following  the  line  which  the  projected  road  from  the 
Biskra-El  Kantara  highway  to  the  upper  part  of  the 
valley  of  the  Wad  Abdi  will  presumably  take  when  com- 
pleted, and  which,  I  venture  to  predict,  will  become  a 
first  favourite  among  excursions  for  those  whose  travels 
are  confined  to  the  metalled  road  and  the  luxury  of  a  car. 

The  valley  between  the  barren  hills,  which  is  wide 
enough  where  it  shelters  the  oasis  of  Djemora,  narrows 
to  something  resembling  a  gorge  at  the  picturesque 
little  village  of  Beni  Suig,  some  half  an  hour's  ride  higher 
up,  where  the  sheer  red  cliffs  and  the  deep  green  of  the 
date  gardens  form  a  wonderful  picture  in  the  brilliant 
sunlight.  High  up  on  the  face  of  these  cliffs,  long  since 
rendered  inaccessible  to  man  by  the  crumbling  of  the 
rocks,  are  to  be  seen  the  walled-up  entrances  to  caves, 
which  were  used  as  dwellings  long  ago  in  the  days  of 
border  warfare,  indeed,  cave  dwellings,  as  we  shall  find 
in  other  parts  of  the  massif,  are  by  no  means  rare  even 
to-day  in  the  fastnesses  of  the  Aures,  and  constitute 
one  of  those  survivals  from  ancient  times  which  have 
seemed  to  me  so  interesting  in  my  wanderings  in  the 
hills,  and  of  which  the  life  of  the  Shawia  affords  so  many 
striking  examples. 

Above  Beni  Suig,  indeed  before  Beni  Suig  is  reached, 


64       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

the  traveller  is  often  compelled  to  ride  in  the  bed  of  the 
stream,  among  the  loose  boulders  of  which  his  mule  will 
pick  his  way  with  remarkable  cleverness,  carefully  feeling 
for  a  hold  before  putting  its  weight  upon  a  foot,  the  water 
rushing  around  its  knees  the  while. 

The  only  danger  the  traveller  by  mule  is  at  all  likely 
to  run,  always  provided  he  can  keep  his  head  and  sit 
quietly  upon  his  animal  while  it  conveys  him  along  some 
very  dizzy  overhanging  paths,  is  to  be  found  while  riding 
in  the  beds  of  streams,  which  are  sometimes  liable  to 
increase,  in  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time,  from  the 
shallowest  of  brooks,  scarcely  damping  the  mule's  fetlocks, 
to  the  proportion  of  foaming  torrents,  sweeping  before 
them  man  and  beast  who  are  unlucky  enough  to  be 
caught  by  them  in  their  wild  rush  after  much  rain  has 
fallen  in  the  higher  country  ;  but  the  local  natives  who 
accompany  the  traveller  can  be  trusted  to  see  to  it  that 
serious  risks  of  this  kind  are  avoided.  As  the  traveller 
approaches  Menaa,  having  passed  a  beautiful  little  oasis 
of  date  palms  at  Amentane  on  the  way,  he  will  enter 
a  basin  formed  by  the  junction  of  the  Wad  Abdi,  flowing 
from  the  north-east,  and  the  Bouzina  River,  quite  a 
considerable  stream,  which,  rising  near  the  village  from 
which  it  takes  its  name  at  the  foot  of  the  great  grey 
rocky  walls  of  the  Mahmel  mountain,  enters  the  Abdi 
valley  through  a  narrow  gorge  from  the  north. 

After  passing  a  cemetery  in  which  the  tombs  of  holy 
men  are  surmounted  by  columns  of  whitewashed  mud, 
bearing  a  striking  resemblance  to  burnoused  human  forms 
of  exceptional  stature  when  dimly  seen  in  the  twilight, 
and  which  might  reasonably  fill  with  awe  a  lonely  super- 
stitious stranger  arriving  late  in  the  evening,  the  traveller 
will  find  that,  in  the  few  short  miles  of  marching  which 
have  brought  him  from  Djemora,  he  appears  to  have 


FROM  AFRICA   TO   EUROPE  65 

left  North  Africa  behind  him  and  reached  some  mountain 
country  of  Southern  Europe. 

At  Djemora  he  had  been  staying  in  a  Saharan  oasis 
of  date  palms,  beneath  red  hills  as  barren  as  the  desert 
below  them  ;  at  Menaa  he  finds  himself  in  a  fertile  valley 
studded  with  peach,  apricot,  walnut,  pear,  fig,  and 
numerous  other  fruit  trees,  into  which  scattered  palms, 
to  be  numbered  in  tens  rather  than  in  tens  of  thousands, 
appear  to  have  wandered  by  mistake.  The  neat  fields 
of  corn  and  beans  and  vegetables  which  he  will  see  around 
him,  too,  will  at  once  show  him  that  he  has  left  behind 
him  the  land  of  Arab  neglect  of  the  soil,  and  has  returned 
to  the  home  of  the  fair-haired  Shawia  husbandmen  he 
had  first  met  at  Beni  Ferah,  while  the  hills  which  dominate 
the  valley,  far  from  being  barren  like  those  he  has  left 
at  Djemora,  are  so  thickly  studded  with  small  juniper 
and  ilex  trees  as  to  present  on  some  of  their  slopes  the 
appearance  of  a  mountain  forest.  Menaa  can  easily  be 
reached  by  a  bridle  path,  ending  in  a  long  and  very  steep 
descent,  from  Beni  Ferah,  but  as  we  have  seen,  the  latter 
village,  despite  its  few  hundreds  of  date  palms,  much 
more  closely  resembles  a  settlement  of  the  higher  Aures 
than  a  desert  oasis,  so  that  the  traveller  who  approaches 
Menaa  from  it,  though  he  will  ride  through  some  extremely 
picturesque  valleys,  will  miss  the  apparent  sudden  change 
from  Africa  to  Europe  which  will  strike  him  at  the  end 
of  his  journey  from  Djemora. 

The  village  of  Menaa  itself,  now  the  terminus  of  a  road 
from  Lambese  and  Batna  in  the  north  which  gives  access 
to  wheeled  traffic  to  the  heart  of  the  western  Aur&s, 
stands  upon  a  rocky  mound  at  the  south-western  end  of 
the  basin  formed  by  the  confluence  of  the  Abdi  and 
Bouzina  streams. 

Upon  the  occasion  of  our  first  visit  to  "  the  Capital  of 


66       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

the  Aures,"  as  the  place  is  proudly  named  by  its  inhabit- 
ants, we  stayed  as  guests  with  the  Kai'd,  a  young  and 
most  capable  chief  who  speaks  perfect  French  and  to 
whose  energy  Menaa  largely  owes  the  prosperity  and 
the  progress  which  we  were  able  to  note  when  we 
revisited  the  village  seven  years  later. 

The  Kai'd,  who  lodged  us  in  a  couple  of  furnished  rooms 
and  treated  us  royally  during  our  stay,  took  a  keen 
interest  in  our  work,  and  furnished  us  with  many  details 
of  the  history  and  customs  of  his  people. 

Some  centuries  ago  the  people  now  inhabiting  Menaa 
had  been  driven  from  their  former  village  higher  up  in 
the  hills,  and  were  searching  for  a  suitable  site  upon  which 
to  erect  a  new  settlement.  While  undecided  which  site 
to  choose  they  met,  near  the  confluence  of  the  two  streams 
alluded  to  above,  a  holy  man  riding  up  from  Djemora 
upon  an  ass,  and  they  decided  to  seek  his  advice.  Dis- 
mounting the  stranger  said  :  "  Follow  my  she-ass,  and 
where  she  rolls  there  build  your  village." 

The  ass  roamed  around  the  valley  and,  ascending  the 
rocky  mound  upon  which  the  village  now  stands,  she  lay 
down  and  rolled.  "  Here  build  your  village,"  said  the 
saint,  "  and  call  it  your  Menaa  (saviour),  for  its  situation 
will  save  you  from  attacks  to  come."  Thus  Menaa  was 
founded,  and  to  this  day,  in  token  of  their  gratitude  to 
the  holy  man  who  chose  for  them  so  good  a  site,  the 
people  of  Menaa  pay  a  nominal  tribute  of  garden  produce 
every  year  to  his  descendants,  who  dwell  in  the  plains 
near  Barika  to  the  west.  The  chief  was  careful  to  show 
us  all  the  advantages  of  Menaa.  Owing  to  its  plentiful 
supply  of  running  water  the  crops  produced  in  the  limited 
area  of  the  basin  are  abundant  and  of  excellent  quality, 
but  the  busy  Shawfa  farmers  do  not  neglect  to  make 
use  of  arty  patch  of  soil  which  can  be  tilled  upon  the 


FROM  AFRICA  TO   EUROPE  67 

mountains  themselves,  so  that  neat  rows  of  small  fields 
can  be  seen  high  up  among  the  hills,  far  beyond  the 
reach  of  any  possible  "  seggia "  irrigation,  which  rely 
for  their  water  supply  upon  the  showers  attracted  by 
the  bush-studded  ridges,  many  of  which  showers  do  not 
reach  the  valley  below. 

The  houses  of  the  village,  huddled  together  upon  the 
rocky  mound  surmounted  by  the  minaret  of  a  mosque, 
though  mostly  built  of  stone  after  the  manner  of  all 
true  Berber  dwellings  in  the  Aures,  are  in  many  cases 
too  well  built,  or,  in  the  case  of  the  north  face  of 
the  village,  too  neatly  aligned  to  be  worthy  of  close 
examination  by  any  one  desirous  of  seeing  a  really 
typical  Shawia  settlement ;  indeed,  Menaa  may  more 
reasonably  be  studied  as  an  example  of  what  such  a  settle- 
ment can  become,  if  its  people  would  only  develop  it 
upon  its  own  lines,  than  as  a  specimen  of  a  Berber  village 
of  the  Aures. 

Thus  the  northern  face  of  the  village,  overlooking 
the  depression  which  now  contains  the  terminus  of  the 
road,  is  so  neatly  constructed  as  to  suggest  some 
European  influence  in  its  erection,  and  to  give  a  tinge 
of  reason  (very  slight  it  must  be  confessed)  to  the  boastful 
title  of  "  The  little  Constantine  "  which  some  Shawia 
admirers  of  Menaa  have  bestowed  upon  the  place,  com- 
paring it  to  the  capital  city  of  the  eastern  department 
of  Algeria. 

The  northern  face  of  the  village  contains  the  somewhat 
elaborate  two-storeyed  house  of  the  Kaid,  a  mosque, 
a  bath-house  (the  property  of  the  chief),  a  couple  of  caf£s, 
and  some  shops  of  the  "  universal  provider  "  description, 
such  as  are  not  to  be  found  in  remoter  hamlets. 

His  lands,  his  shops,  and  his  bath-house  are  not  the 
only  sources  from  which  our  host,  the  Kaid  of  Menaa, 


68       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

derives  his  income,  for  he  is  the  owner  of  one  of  those 
corn-mills  which  constitute  a  striking  example  of  the 
survival  of  primitive  machinery  in  most  parts  of  the 
Aures,  as  well  as  at  El  Kantara,  and  other  oases  which 
can  boast  of  the  possession  of  a  stream. 

The  upper  of  two  horizontal  grindstones,  chipped  by 
hand  by  the  natives  of  Beni  Ferah,  is  caused  to  rotate 
upon  the  fixed  lower  stone  by  means  of  a  horizontal 
water-wheel  below  it,  with  which  it  is  connected  by  a 
vertical  shaft,  the  water  being  directed  from  a  "  seggia  " 
to  the  wheel,  or  turbine,  by  means  of  a  movable  trough 
when  the  mill  is  required  to  act. 

A  piece  of  wood  resting  upon  the  revolving  stone  is 
connected  with  a  movable  spout  from  the  cone-shaped 
box  in  which  the  corn  is  placed  so  that  the  rotary  move- 
ment of  the  stone  causes  the  spout  to  oscillate  and  the 
grain  to  fall  little  by  little  between  the  stones.  This 
simple  turbine  mill,  the  design  of  which  must  be  of  very 
great  antiquity,  is  capable  of  producing  some  really 
excellent  flour,  and  seems  likely  to  persist  for  many 
generations  to  come  among  so  conservative  a  people  as 
the  Shawfa. 

Menaa,  besides  being  one  of  the  most  important 
agricultural  centres  of  the  poor  valleys  of  the  Aures 
massif,  is  also  important  as  a  centre  of  commerce  for, 
in  addition  to  possessing  a  fair  number  of  native  shops, 
it  manufactures  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  leather  goods  of 
the  Abdi  and  Bouzina  valleys  ;  natives  from  these  regions 
being  compelled  to  purchase  their  shoes  from  the  only 
cobblers  available,  those  of  the  industrious  "  Capital  of 
the  Aures."  These  slippers,  made  of  goatskin,  dyed 
yellow  for  male  customers  and  red  with  yellow  toe-caps 
for  the  ladies,  are  well  and  strongly  sewn,  and  will  be 
found  useful  to  Europeans  as  camp  and  bedroom  shoes 


FROM  AFRICA  TO  EUROPE  69 

when  once  their  rather  rounded  soles  have  been  trodden 
flat  by  actual  wear  (I  am  wearing  a  similar  pair  bought 
at  Bou  Saada  fifteen  years  ago  as  I  write),  but  they  afford 
an  example  as  glaring  as  that  of  the  Beni  Ferah  pottery 
of  the  artificial  prices  now  ruling  even  in  out-of-the-way 
districts  of  the  hills  ;  in  1914  they  cost  three  francs  in 
silver  per  pair  ;  in  1920  the  Shawia  were  paying  a  twenty- 
franc  note  for  them ! 

This  increase  in  price,  however,  affects  the  more  wealthy 
natives  only,  for  the  vast  majority  of  Shawia  are  content 
to  clamber  up  and  down  their  precipitous  hillsides  shod 
with  nothing  more  elaborate  than  sandals  of  plaited 
halfa  grass,  which  cost  them  nothing,  for  the  material 
grows  upon  the  hills  and  even  young  children  are  capable 
of  making  their  footgear  for  themselves. 

Upon  the  occasion  of  our  last  visit  to  Menaa  we  found 
that  not  only  had  the  road  which  we  had  seen  in  course 
of  construction  higher  up  the  Abdi  valley  been  continued 
to  the  village,  but  also  that  a  bordj,  exactly  similar  to 
that  of  Djemora,  had  been  erected  two  or  three  hundred 
yards  to  the  north  of  the  rocky  mound  on  which  the 
village  stands.  We  therefore  stayed  at  the  bordj,  and 
found  its  guardian,  Belkassem,  to  be  an  excellent  cook 
as  well  as  a  very  intelligent  person,  able  and  very  willing 
to  help  us  forward  in  our  work. 

This  bordj  should  prove  extremely  useful  to  the 
motorist  who  would  see  the  Shawia  in  their  own  land 
by  following  the  road  from  Lambese  down  the  Abdi 
valley  and  spending  a  few  days  at  Menaa,  choosing  as 
the  time  for  his  visit  the  spring  of  the  year,  when  all  the 
fruit  trees  are  abloom  and  the  snow  has  left  the  higher 
passes  over  which  the  road  must  run,  and  bringing  with 
him  a  few  simple  stores  from  a  civilized  town,  to  give 
Belkassem  a  chance  to  show  what  he  can  really  do  with 


70       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

a  few   European  dainties   to   add   to   the   local   produce 
which  he  contrived  to  make  palatable  enough  for  us. 

When  we  reached  the  bordj  which  very  rarely  receives 
even  an  official  visitor,  we  found  that  its  courtyard  was 
largely  used  as  a  place  of  gossip  by  women  and  girls 
from  the  scattered  houses  round,  cronies  of  Yamina, 
Belkassem's  wife,  who  would  bring  their  distaffs  and 
spindles,  or  bundles  of  wool  for  skeining,  and,  squatting 
on  the  sunny  side  of  the  yard,  indulge  to  their  heart's 
delight  in  picking  to  pieces  other  people's  husbands, 
whispering  over  the  latest  village  scandal,  or  discussing 
clothes  with  as  much  interest  and  animation  as  their 
more  civilized  sisters  are  sometimes  suspected  of  doing 
at  tea-parties  in  an  English  village.  Upon  our  arrival 
these  daily  reunions  came  to  an  end,  but  after  a  day 
or  two  the  Shawia  women,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  are 
far  freer  than  their  Arab  neighbours,  finding  that  my 
wife  was  anxious  to  make  friends  with  them  and  that 
I  was  harmless,  began  to  resume  their  habit  of  visiting 
the  bordj,  so  that  in  a  very  short  time  we  came  to 
be  upon  excellent  terms  with  them,  and  my  wife  was 
enabled  to  prosecute  her  inquiries  into  many  of  their 
simple  arts  and  crafts,  while  as  their  confidence  in  me 
increased  I  managed  to  secure  quite  a  collection  of 
drawings  of  tattoo  marks  and  notes  upon  superstitions, 
etc.,  to  add  to  the  information  I  was  gleaning  upon  Shawia 
life  in  the  Aures. 

It  is  very  certain  that,  comparatively  free  as  the 
Shawia  women  are,  the  European  bachelor  can  hope  to 
learn  little  or  nothing  of  them  and  of  their  lives,  but  in 
the  presence  of  an  Englishwoman  their  curiosity  to  examine 
her  and  her  garments  will  lead  them  to  converse  freely 
with  the  male  traveller,  when  once  he  has  to  some  extent 
gained  their  confidence. 


FROM  AFRICA  TO   EUROPE  71 

Very  many  primitive  customs,  such  as  must  be  studied 
by  any  one  engaged  in  examining  the  daily  life  of  a 
native  race,  are  known  only  to  the  women,  indeed  I 
think  that  the  general  success  or  failure  of  our  work  in 
any  Algerian  village  may  be  said  to  correspond  to  the 
degree  in  which  we  were  able  to  associate  with  its  female 
population,  and  that  I  have  been  able  to  see  anything  of 
their  lives,  study  their  weaving  and  spinning,  glean 
details  of  their  superstitions  and  sorcery,  and  be  welcomed 
as  a  guest  in  their  homes  is  due  solely  to  the  presence 
of  my  wife. 

We  spent  a  good  deal  of  our  time,  therefore,  during 
our  last  visit  to  Menaa  in  our  home  at  the  bordj, 
receiving  relays  of  visitors  of  both  sexes  and  gradually 
adding  to  our  notes,  but  we  wandered  a  good  deal  about 
the  village  and,  this  time,  made  the  acquaintance  of  a 
powerful  marabout  who  occupies  a  fairly  extensive 
"  zawia  "  a  few  hundred  yards  to  the  north-east  of  the 
village  itself.  A  "  zawia  "  may  be  described  as  the  home 
of  a  saintly  or  maraboutic  family  and  its  retainers,  in 
which  facilities  are  offered,  in  the  way  of  books  and 
accommodation,  for  the  study  of  Mohammedan  doc- 
trines, and  in  which  followers  of  the  marabout,  who  is 
at  the  head  of  the  establishment,  or  indeed  any  passing 
Moslems,  are  housed  and  entertained  should  they  pause 
for  a  night  or  two  upon  a  journey.  Although  certain 
maraboutic  families  are  wealthy  enough  to  maintain 
such  establishments  without  appealing  to  their  followers 
for  gifts,  the  majority  of  the  saints  do  receive  substantial 
sums  or  gifts  in  kind  from  those  who  reverence  them, 
and  thus  they  are  able  to  offer  the  hospitality  to  all  and 
sundry  which  I  have  mentioned.  I  do  not  know  of  a 
word  in  the  English  language  which  is  exactly  the 
equivalent  of  the  Arabic  "  zawia  "  ;   it  is  neither  a  feudal 


72       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

castle,  a  small  university,  nor  a  monastery,  and  yet  it 
embodies  some  of  the  characteristics  of  all  three.  In 
these  pages,  therefore,  when  describing  other  zawias 
which  we  visited  in  the  Aures,  I  shall  employ  the  Arabic 
word  without  attempting  a  translation.  We  became 
rather  friendly  with  the  saint  of  Menaa ;  I  think  the 
soreness  of  a  holy  toe  and  a  tube  of  carbolated  vaseline 
combined  to  cement  the  friendship,  and  in  so  doing  we 
made  the  acquaintance  of  one  of  his  relations,  a  middle- 
aged  man,  who,  though  at  times  perfectly  rational  and, 
I  believe,  of  a  very  genial  disposition,  also  experienced 
periods  of  imbecility,  one  of  which  he  was  undergoing 
at  the  time  we  met  him. 

His  imbecility  fortunately  never  led  him  to  any  acts 
of  violence,  indeed  it  seemed  rather  to  increase  his  natural 
geniality,  and  it  made  the  poor  fellow  an  unmitigated 
nuisance  to  us,  for  he  was  so  anxious  to  ensure  that  we 
had  everything  we  could  want  that  he  insisted  upon 
pursuing  us  whenever  he  found  an  opportunity,  and  he 
was  rather  encouraged  in  his  attentions  by  our  super- 
stitious old  orderly,  who  firmly  believed  that  the 
companionship  of  this  poor  mad  scion  of  a  saintly  house 
would  lead  to  his  receiving  a  little  of  the  blessing  which 
the  lunatic  was  supposed  to  give  off  in  his  touch  and 
conversation,  if  the  unfortunate  fellow's  gibberish  can 
be  so  termed.  All  feeble-minded  persons  are  regarded 
as  uncanny,  if  not  exactly  holy,  in  Algeria ;  a  mad 
hereditary  saint,  therefore,  is  looked  upon  as  very  much 
to  be  respected  indeed. 

Although  I  made  as  many  inquiries  as  I  could 
into  the  arts  and  crafts  of  the  inhabitants  of  Menaa, 
I  found  that  I  obtained  my  most  valuable  notes  on 
these  subjects  in  more  remote  hamlets  in  which  im- 
ported implements  were  less  likely  to  be  found,  the  arts, 


FROM  AFRICA  TO  EUROPE  73 

therefore,  being  more  strictly  native  in  character  ;  but 
at  Menaa  I  found  the  manufacture  of  silver  ornaments 
to  be  carried  on  more  extensively  perhaps  than  in  any 
other  Shawia  village,  and,  as  these  ornaments  are  some- 
what striking  in  character,  are  made  by  means  of  most 
primitive  appliances,  and  in  some  cases  possess  a  magical 
value,  I  will  give  some  description  of  them  in  the 
next  chapter. 


CHAPTER    IV 
AT    THE    "CAPITAL"    OF    THE    AURES 

DRESS  OF  THE  SHAWIA  WOMEN — THE  SILVER  ORNAMENTS  OP  THE  AURES — 

MAGIC    IN    JEWELLERY — THE    "  EVIL    EYE  " THE    SILVERSMITHS    OF 

THE  HILLS — FASHIONS  IN  JEWELLERY — THE  FEAST  OF  THE  SPRING 
— HOCKEY  IN  THE  HILLS — FROM  MENAA  TO  TAGOUST — DESCENDANTS 
OF  THE  ROMANS — A  HOLY  MOUNTAIN — CAVE-DWELLERS  OF  THE 
MAAFA  GORGE — A  SHORT  AND   EASY  JOURNEY  IN  THE  AURES. 

BEFORE  proceeding  to  describe  in  any  detail  the 
barbaric  silver  ornaments  of  the  Aures  which  are 
to  be  found,  perhaps,  in  greater  profusion  and  variety 
at  Menaa  and  in  the  Wed  Abdi  than  in  other  parts  of 
the  massif,  it  may  be  well  to  give  my  readers  some 
idea  of  the  costumes  of  the  women,  alike  in  all  Shawia 
villages,  upon  which  they  are  displayed,  and  for  this 
purpose  I  must  call  in  the  assistance  of  my  wife,  not  only 
because  she  has  made  the  garments  worn  herself  under 
the  direction  of  Shawia  friends,  and  has  often  been 
dressed  in  them  to  ascertain  exactly  the  native  method 
of  putting  them  on,  but  also  because  my  masculine  pen 
is  quite  unequal  to  the  task  of  describing  accurately  the 
costume  of  any  lady  other,  perhaps,  than  some  I  have 
met  with  years  ago  in  the  equatorial  forests  of  Central 
Africa. 

The  universal  costume  of  the  Shawia  woman  consists 
of  two  garments.  The  first,  worn  next  to  the  body,  is 
a  straight  "  gandoura,"  or  shirt,  of  stout  cotton  material 
cut  round  in  the  neck,  opening  a  short  way  at  the  throat 

7* 


AT  THE   "CAPITAL"   OF  THE  AURfiS       75 

to  allow  it  to  be  passed  over  the  head,  and  fastened  with 
a  button. 

The  "  gandoura "  falls  from  the  shoulders  to  the 
knees,  and  is  usually  of  white  material  with  short  sleeves 
of  "  flowered  "  cotton,  but  often,  in  the  case  of  a  rich 
woman  who  may  wish  to  appear  more  elaborately  attired 
at  fetes,  weddings,  etc.,  short  sleeves  of  net  or  some 
bright  coloured  material  are  attached  to  the  "  gandoura." 
Over  the  shirt  the  second  garment  or  dress,  if  a  straight 
piece  of  material  can  be  dignified  with  the  name,  is  worn. 
This  dress  consists  of  two  lengths,  of  from  six  to  ten  yards 
each,  of  French  cotton,  black  or  dark  blue  edged  with 
coloured  braid  being  the  most  usually  worn  at  Menaa, 
and  these  two  lengths  are  stitched  together  along  one 
side  to  increase  the  width. 

One  end  of  the  material  is  draped  over  the  back,  a 
short  piece  being  left  to  form  the  right  sleeve,  and  is  then 
brought  full  under  the  left  arm,  forming  the  left  sleeve, 
and  folded  double  over  the  breast  so  that  the  braided 
upper  edge  falls  to  the  waist.  This  fold  over  the  breast 
is  caught  by  silver  brooches  on  each  side  to  the  material 
on  the  back,  which  is  drawn  forward  over  the  shoulders 
to  meet  it. 

The  length  is  then  gathered  full  around  the  waist  to 
form  the  skirt  in  even  pleats,  more  numerous  in  front 
than  at  the  back,  and  is  thus  brought  round  to  the  left 
side  and  held  in  place  by  a  girdle  of  plaited  wool  of 
various  colours  passed  several  times  around  the  waist. 

The  loose  sleeves,  formed  by  folds  of  the  garment,  are 
often  tied  behind  the  back,  or  tucked  into  the  girdle 
while  working.  Although  dark  colours  are  preferred  for 
everyday  wear,  bright  coloured  or  "  flowered "  muslin 
dresses  are  worn  by  the  younger  women  at  festivals 
and  by  brides. 


76       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

Shawls,  usually  woven  at  home  of  wool  or  silk  and 
wool,  but  sometimes  made  of  French  net,  are  very 
commonly  seen  upon  great  occasions  draped  over  the 
shoulders  and  fastened  in  front  by  means  of  a  silver 
brooch.  These  we  have  seen  dyed  black  for  motives  of 
economy. 

Upon  the  head  the  Shawia  woman  often  wears  as  many 
as  seven  coloured  kerchiefs,  which  are  draped  around  the 
head  and  knotted  in  front ;  black  silk  ones  with  a  fringe 
being  considered  especially  smart  by  rich  women,  and 
usually  worn  under  the  brightly  coloured  ones  with 
one  end  hanging  down  the  back. 

To  all  intents  and  purposes  the  dress  of  the  little 
girls  is  a  replica  in  miniature  of  that  of  their 
mothers,  but  the  smallest  are  attired  only  in  a  cotton 
"  gandoura." 

The  hair,  which  is  profusely  oiled,  is  usually  made  into 
three  plaits,  which  are  twisted  round  the  head  and 
concealed  by  the  kerchiefs,  only  one  lock  on  each  side  of 
the  face  and  a  straight  fringe  being  exposed  to  view,  a 
fashion  which  distinguishes  the  Shawia  women  from  many 
of  the  nomads,  who  wear  thick  plaits  of  hair,  often 
increased  by  an  admixture  of  wool,  looped  up  in  front 
of  each  ear  so  as  to  give  to  the  face  the  impression  that 
it  is  enclosed  in  a  massive  frame. 

The  shoes  worn  by  the  women  of  Menaa,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  are  of  red  goatskin,  often  ornamented  with 
bright  yellow  toe-caps.  The  trinkets  displayed  upon  the 
costume  described  above  arc  worthy  of  examination, 
for  some  have  uses  other  than  mere  ornament,  and  some 
are  of  very  ancient  design.  We  have  already  alluded 
to  a  couple  of  brooches  worn  upon  the  breast  to  join  the 
drapery  upon  the  shoulders  with  that  across  the  chest ; 
these  brooches  are  interesting. 


AT  THE   "CAPITAL"   OF  THE  AURfiS       77 

The  brooch  consists  of  a  sharp  silver  pin  through  a 
hole  in  the  blunt  end  of  which  is  passed  a  ring  of  silver, 
divided  at  one  point  to  allow  the  pin  (longer  than  the 
diameter  of  the  ring)  to  pass  from  one  side  of  it  to  the 
other ;  the  two  pieces  of  the  dress  material  to  be  joined 
are  transfixed  by  the  pin,  the  point  of  which  is  then  passed 
through  the  gap  in  the  ring  alluded  to  above,  and  the 
ring  pushed  slightly  round  so  that  the  point  is  no  longer 
opposite  to  the  gap,  and  the  pin  cannot  slip  back,  the 
material  thus  being  locked  in  position  upon  the  pin 
until  the  wearer  chooses  to  turn  the  ring  back  and  allow 
the  pin  to  come  out  again  through  the  gap. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  form  of  brooch  is  of 
very  great  antiquity.  It  is  found  to-day  all  over  Algeria, 
and  excavations  have  revealed  it  in  such  distant  countries 
as  Scotland,  Ireland,  and  many  parts  of  Europe,  so  that 
some  students  have  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  it 
reached  the  Barbary  States  at  the  time  of  some  very 
early  invasion  from  the  north,  and  I  have  myself  found 
such  a  brooch  upon  a  poor  Shawfa  child  at  Menaa  which 
would  appear  to  have  been  buried  for  a  prolonged  period, 
and  may  even  date  from  very  early  ages,  having  possibly 
been  found  while  the  child's  relatives  were  digging  the 
foundations  of  a  house. 

The  great  majority  of  the  brooches  worn  are  now  of 
silver,  and  the  blunt  end  of  the  pin  is  usually  produced  to 
form  an  ornamental  "  head,"  sometimes  crescent-shaped  in 
form,  but  more  usually  triangular,  with  perforated  scroll 
patterns,  the  sides  of  the  triangles  being  often  well  over 
two  inches  in  length. 

The  brooches  on  the  breast  are  worn  head  downwards, 
and  their  heads  are  usually  connected  with  a  chain  to 
which  are  attached  a  few  flat  rectangular  boxes  of  silver, 
ornamented  with  embossed  designs,  to  hold  the  written 


78       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

talismans  without  which  no  Algerian  woman  considers 
herself  safe  from  magical  attacks. 

It  is  not  unusual  to  find  in  the  Aures,  though  I  have 
not  noted  the  custom  elsewhere,  a  neatly  made  circular 
silver  box,  containing  a  mirror,  about  two  inches  in 
diameter,  suspended  from  one  of  the  brooches  ;  its  lid, 
often  very  well  decorated  with  open  scroll  patterns, 
taking  the  place  of  the  cheap  leather-covered  mirrors 
in  which  the  majority  of  Algerian  women  love  to  admire 
their  beauty. 

Around  their  necks  the  women  of  the  Wad  Abdi  wear 
silver  collars,  from  which  a  great  number  of  chains  hang 
down  over  their  breasts,  each  chain  ending  in  a  small 
coral  bead  and  either  a  scroll  of  silver  wire  or  a  very 
small  pointed  pendant.  In  addition  to  this  many  women 
wear  a  long  necklet  reaching  to  the  waist,  made  of  great 
numbers  of  home-made  beads  scented  with  musk,  the 
beads  being  threaded  upon  several  sets  of  strings,  and 
arranged  so  that  silver  globes  or  cones  connect  the  different 
sets  at  various  points  in  the  length  of  the  necklet,  at  the 
lower  end  of  which  a  conventionalized  representation  in 
silver  of  a  human  hand,  with  its  fingers  extended,  hangs 
as  a  pendant. 

In  some  districts  these  necklets  are  worn  by  brides 
upon  their  wedding  day,  and  are  subsequently  used  upon 
the  occasion  of  festivals.  The  arms  of  the  Shawia  ladies 
are  laden  with  bracelets,  as  many  as  half  a  dozen  or  eight 
pairs  being  sometimes  worn,  the  bracelets  consisting  of 
solid  flat  bars  of  silver,  the  outer  sides  of  which  are 
decorated  with  round  or  lozenge-shaped  bosses  and  with 
pieces  of  glass,  usually  red,  let  into  the  silver,  the  glass 
being  procured  from  such  places  as  Biskra  and  Constan- 
tine,  having  been  manufactured  in  Europe  for  the 
purpose.       Rings,  similarly   ornamented  with  glass,  are 


AT  THE   "CAPITAL"   OF  THE   AURfiS       79 

also  worn,  not  only  by  the  women,  but  by  the  majority 
of  the  men. 

All  but  the  poorer  classes  of  women  in  the  Wed  Abdi 
wear  two  pairs  of  anklets,  one  consisting  of  engraved 
bands  of  silver,  between  two  and  three  inches  deep,  and 
the  other  of  plain  solid  silver  bars,  the  clinking  of  the 
two  as  the  wearer  walks  causing  her  great  gratification, 
akin,  perhaps,  to  that  anticipated  by  a  certain  young 
officer  who,  rumour  has  it,  was  once  seen  entering  a 
London  shop  to  have  his  spurs  tuned  ! 

One  of  the  great  features  of  Aurasian  jewellery  is  to 
be  found  in  the  earrings  worn  by  all  the  women. 

These  consist  of  bars  of  silver  bent  almost  to  form  a 
circle,  the  space  between  the  two  ends  of  which  are  joined 
by  wires,  upon  which  coral  is  threaded  after  the  ring 
has  been  thrust  through  the  lobe  or  the  upper  portion  of 
the  ear.  Some  of  these  earrings  are  decorated  with  bosses 
of  filigree  work,  with  coral  in  the  centre  ;  some  have 
silver  globes  and  cones  threaded  upon  them ;  others 
are  beaten  out  flat  and  serrated  for  ornamentation ; 
but  all  are  large,  three  inches  being  about  their  usual 
diameter,  though  I  have  a  pair  from  the  Djebel  Cherchar 
which  is  slightly  oval  in  form  and  measures  five  inches 
at  its  greatest  depth. 

Needless  to  say,  the  weight  of  these  ornaments  (three 
pairs  of  which  I  have  once  seen  worn  at  a  time)  cause 
considerable  deformity  to  the  ear,  but  this  is  reduced  as 
much  as  possible  by  attaching  the  earrings,  by  means 
of  silver  chains  and  hooks,  to  the  kerchiefs  worn  upon 
the  head, 

"  Head  pendants,"  often  consisting  of  silver  stars, 
about  two  inches  in  diameter,  from  the  lower  points  of 
which  hang  many  chains  like  those  worn  upon  necklets, 
are  frequently  to  be  seen  suspended  by  chains  and  hooks 


80       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

from  either  side  of  the  headdress,  while  brow  bands  of 
rectangular  silver  boxes,  connected  by  strings  of  coral, 
are  commonly  worn  in  many  parts  of  the  massif. 

Upon  the  breast  of  many  a  Shawia  woman  may  be 
seen  suspended  a  porcupine's  foot  set  in  silver,  and  the 
eye-tooth  of  a  dog  similarly  mounted. 

Although  silver  is  the  metal  most  usually  employed 
in  the  manufacture  of  personal  ornaments  in  the  hills, 
some  of  the  wives  of  wealthy  chiefs  are  to  be  found  almost 
covered  with  similar  trinkets  of  solid  gold,  the  ornaments 
worn  representing  many  thousands  of  francs  in  value  ; 
while  the  Ouled  Nail  dancing  girls  to  be  seen  at  Biskra 
are  also  in  the  habit  of  investing  their  gains  in  gold 
ornaments  with  which  to  beautify  their  somewhat 
unattractive  persons. 

Before  proceeding  to  describe  the  crude  method  in 
which  this  by  no  means  unpleasing  Berber  jewellery  is 
produced  we  may,  perhaps,  digress  for  a  moment  in  an 
attempt  to  examine  the  reasons  for  which  some  of  the 
articles  enumerated  are  worn. 

Let  us  begin  with  the  "  hands,"  which  we  have  seen 
are  worn  upon  their  necklets  by  the  Shawia  beauties. 
These,  as  every  visitor  to  Algeria  is  aware,  are  worn  as 
a  charm  against  the  "  evil-eye,"  which  is  so  dreaded 
throughout  the  Barbary  States,  but,  whatever  any 
"  guide  "  may  choose  to  inform  his  employers,  they  are 
not  representations  of  the  "  Hand  of  Fathma,"  the 
daughter  of  the  Prophet  of  Islam  ;  indeed,  they  are  not 
even  called  "  hands  "  by  the  natives  themselves,  but  are 
referred  to  as  "  fives,"  and  are  carried  for  the  following 
reason. 

When  a  native  meets  a  person  who  is  in  the  habit  of 
bestowing  the  envious  glance  known  as  the  "  evil-eye," 
which  is  frequently  followed  by  the  direst  results  to  its 


AT  THE   "CAPITAL"   OF  THE  AURftS       81 

victim,  in  order  to  protect  himself  by  forestalling  the 
coming  magical  attack,  he  will  extend  the  fingers  of  one 
hand  towards  the  evilly  disposed  person  and  remark 
"  Khamsa  fi  ainek  "  ("  Five  in  thine  eye  "),  the  gesture 
being  considered  to  be  efficacious  in  preventing  the  envious 
glance  from  wreaking  mischief.  Perhaps  in  order  to 
save  the  trouble  of  making  the  gesture,  but  more  probably 
to  carry  the  gesture  ready  made,  and  so  available  for 
instant  use  even  if  the  threatening  danger  is  not 
observed,  the  silver  hands  with  the  fingers  extended  are 
commonly  worn  in  a  conspicuous  position  by  the  women 
of  Algeria,  and  have  probably  been  so  worn  for  many 
centuries  before  Fathma,  daughter  of  Mohammed  the 
Prophet,  graced  the  deserts  of  Arabia.  The  small  pointed 
pendants,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  are  often  suspended 
from  silver  collars,  appear  to  be  similarly  intended  to 
threaten  the  eye  of  the  would-be  giver  of  the  envious 
glance,  and  the  coral  so  largely  used  in  Shawia  jewellery 
is  also  worn  to  protect  the  woman  from  the  "  evil-eye," 
but  for  a  different  reason.  The  damage  done  by  the 
"  evil-eye  "  is  not  caused  by  the  glance  itself,  but  by 
an  invisible  demon  which  accompanies  it,  a  "  jinn " 
similar  to  that  which,  as  we  have  seen,  flew  away  with 
a  bride  and  so  caused  a  migration  of  the  Ouled  Ziane, 
and  these  demons  are  commonly  believed  to  have  the 
greatest  repugnance  for  anything  that  is  red  in  colour, 
a  fact  which  seems  to  account  for  the  popularity  and 
magical  value  of  coral,  for  which  the  Shawia  will  pay 
exorbitant  prices,  and  also  for  the  use  of  red  glass  set 
in  various  silver  ornaments. 

The  effect  of  the  envious  glance  is  believed  to  be  very 
remarkable.  Belkadi,  our  old  orderly,  once  purchased  a 
new  pair  of  French  scissors  and  displayed  them  to  a 
friend,  who  remarked  upon  their  excellent  quality  without 

6 


82       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

attributing  that  quality  to  the  favour  of  God ;  the 
scissors  instantly  broke  in  half  as  he  held  them !  It  is 
therefore  considered  extremely  unlucky,  and  it  renders 
the  speaker  liable  to  be  suspected  of  giving  the  "  evil- 
eye,"  for  any  one  to  admire  a  person,  or  a  thing,  without 
implying  in  some  way  that  its  beauty  or  value  is  due  to 
the  Almighty,  so  that  the  traveller  in  remoter  districts 
has  to  be  careful  to  avoid  anything  like  fulsome  flattery 
or  unstinted  praise,  especially  of  children  and  animals. 

Inanimate  objects  are  often  protected  against  the 
envious  glance  by  a  very  simple  form  of  charm,  to  which 
my  wife  and  I  always  refer  in  conversation  as  a  "  lightning 
conductor "  ;  for  example,  when  a  new  house  is  built 
an  old  black  pot  is  placed  upon  a  corner  of  its  roof  in 
order  that  it  may  "  catch  the  eye "  of  a  malevolent 
passer-by,  and  so,  by  attracting  his  envious  glance  to 
itself,  save  the  building  from  the  evil  which  is  threaten- 
ing it. 

The  silver-mounted  dog's  tooth,  which  is  quite  commonly 
worn  suspended  from  the  dress,  is  carried  as  a  threat 
to  lurking  demons  by  suggesting  to  them  the  presence 
of  a  savage  creature,  even  demons  being  very  subject 
to  fear,  but  the  reason  underlying  the  wearing  of  the 
foot  of  a  porcupine  as  a  preventative  against  soreness 
of  the  breast  in  a  young  mother  has  so  far  defeated  all 
my  efforts  to  obtain  a  coherent  native  explanation  of  its 
character  and  its  origin. 

But  I  have  already  digressed  too  long  upon  the  magical 
uses  of  jewellery,  especially  as  magic  will  be  referred  to 
again  when  I  take  my  readers  to  the  central  valleys  of 
the  Aures  massif;  I  will  therefore  turn  to  the  manufac- 
ture of  the  silver  ornaments,  one  of  the  chief  arts  of  the 
Shawia  of  Mcnaa. 

The  silversmith  squats  upon  the  mud  floor  of  his  dingy 


AT  THE   "CAPITAL"   OF  THE  AURfiS       88 

stone-built  room,  blowing  into  flame  the  glowing  embers 
in  a  hole  in  the  floor  by  means  of  a  bellows,  consisting  of 
an  old  gun-barrel,  fixed  in  a  lump  of  baked  earth,  and  a 
skin  of  a  kid  open  at  one  end  and  attached  to  the  gun- 
barrel  at  the  other,  so  that,  by  opening  his  hand  as  he 
draws  the  bag  backwards  by  its  open  end,  he  fills  it  full 
of  air,  which,  by  closing  the  hand  as  he  pushes  it  forward 
again,  he  forces  through  the  barrel  on  to  the  embers, 
amid  which  the  silver  is  melting  in  a  little  metal  cup. 

When  the  silver  is  molten,  lifting  the  cup  by  means  of 
a  pair  of  tongs,  he  pours  the  liquid  metal  into  a  mould 
in  the  shape  of  a  horse-shoe  filled  with  oil  and  sand,  in 
which  he  has  previously  made  an  impression  of  the  article 
to  be  cast,  the  mould  being  divided  into  two  parts  down 
the  centre,  so  that  it  may  be  opened  for  the  moulding  and 
the  parts  clamped  together  again  when  the  metal  is  to 
be  poured  in. 

Thus  the  brooches,  etc.,  are  very  easily  moulded, 
and  only  require  to  be  finished  off  with  the  aid  of  a 
European  file. 

Deep  anklets  are  beaten  out  upon  a  small  anvil,  and 
their  scroll  patterns  are  traced  upon  them  by  means  of 
a  hammer  and  chisel,  while  the  solid  ones  are  similarly 
beaten  out  from  a  bar  of  silver,  but  as  a  rule  are  not 
decorated  with  any  elaborate  design. 

Although  the  filigree  work  to  be  found  upon  a  few 
earrings  at  Menaa  is  perhaps  the  most  difficult  task  the 
jeweller  sets  himself  to  perform,  undoubtedly  the  most 
laborious  is  that  of  making  the  chains  which  are  worn 
in  such  profusion  in  the  Aures,  for  the  bar  of  silver  has 
to  be  beaten  with  a  hammer  until  it  assumes  the  propor- 
tions of  coarse  wire,  then  drawn  through  a  series  of  holes, 
decreasing  in  size,  in  a  steel  plate  until  this  wire  becomes 
sufficiently  fine,  and,  at  last,  it  is  beaten  flat,  cut  into 


84       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

minute  lengths,  and  hammered  round  the  pointed  end 
of  the  anvil  to  form  the  tiny  links  required. 

Sometimes  imported  silver  chain  is  to  be  found  upon 
otherwise  genuine  native  jewellery,  so  that,  in  collecting 
specimens  of  Shawia  ornaments,  I  always  carefully  examine 
the  chain-work  first  of  all  in  order  to  observe  any  little 
irregularities  in  the  links,  none  too  easily  noted  in  a 
really  well-made  chain,  which  would  stamp  it  as  a  real 
example  of  the  handicraft  of  a  native  silversmith. 

Some  of  the  metal  used  is  silver  purchased  in  the  form 
of  bars  at  Constantine,  but  a  very  large  amount  of  the 
jewellery  is  made  from  broken  or  discarded  trinkets, 
and  silver  money  very  frequently  finds  its  way  into  the 
melting-pot. 

In  a  land  of  survivals,  such  as  the  Aures,  it  may  well 
be  imagined  that  fashions  would  remain  the  same,  and 
to  a  great  extent  this  is  true,  but  nevertheless  there  is 
a  distinct  change  taking  place  with  regard  to  the  large 
earrings,  of  which  we  have  seen  that  several  patterns 
are  worn  at  Menaa.  Unfortunately  this  change  is  in 
favour  of  the  flattened  and  serrated  type  of  ring,  which 
is  far  less  picturesque  than  those  adorned  with  bosses 
of  filigree  work  or  with  hollow  globes  and  cones,  so  that 
many  fine  old  specimens  of  Shawia  silver-work  daily 
find  their  way  to  the  jeweller  to  reappear  again  in  the 
crude  form  which  seems  now  to  please  the  ladies  of  the 
Aures. 

Before  the  war  the  silver-work  of  the  mountains  was 
obtainable  very  cheaply  in  districts  in  which  the  fabulous 
prices  sometimes  paid  in  the  towns  arc  unknown. 

The  native  himself,  when  he  brings  his  own  silver  to 
the  jeweller,  pays  him  a  very  small  sum  for  his  work,  so 
that  should  the  traveller  purchase  an  ornament  with 
silver  money  he  ought  to  obtain  it  for  very  little  more 


AT   THE   "CAPITAL"   OF  THE   AURfiS       85 

than  its  own  weight  in  coin  ;  but  the  Shawfa  have  a  great 
dislike  for  paper  money,  which  in  the  winter  of  1919-20 
was  almost  exclusively  used  in  Algeria,  and  can  only 
with  the  greatest  difficulty  be  persuaded  to  sell  their 
jewellery  for  it,  even  at  prices  which  are  utterly  absurd, 
so  that  an  offer  of  twenty  francs  in  paper  will  probably 
not  tempt  a  native  to  part  with  an  object  whose  weight 
is  equivalent  to  ten  francs,  or  even  less,  although,  of 
course,  bargains  can  still  be  made  with  persons  to  whom 
ready  money  is  a  necessity. 

During  our  stay  at  Menaa  we  experienced  an  oppor- 
tunity, even  better  than  the  weddings  at  Beni  Ferah, 
of  seeing  the  women  attired  in  their  very  best,  for  we 
were  in  the  village  during  the  three  days  of  the  annual 
Feast  of  the  Spring,  which  is  held  at  the  end  of  February. 
Late  at  night  on  the  28th  of  February  all,  or  nearly  all, 
the  able-bodied  women  and  girls  of  the  village  repaired 
to  the  juniper-studded  slopes  of  a  mountain  some  miles 
away,  and  there  commenced  to  celebrate  the  beginning 
of  the  feast  by  following  their  ordinary  and  very  laborious 
task  of  cutting  huge  loads  of  firewood,  beneath  which 
they  staggered  next  morning  to  the  village,  being  accom- 
panied upon  their  homeward  march  by  some  tom-toms 
and  an  oboe,  as  well  as  by  men  armed  with  guns  and 
pistols  which  were  discharged  as  often  as  the  existing 
shortage  of  powder  would  permit. 

A  halt  was  called  a  mile  from  the  village,  and,  while 
the  women  rested  beside  their  burdens,  one  or  two  young 
girls  danced  in  turn  to  the  strains  of  the  band  amid  the 
quivering  cries  of  the  female  spectators. 

The  crowd  by  this  time  had  assumed  considerable 
proportions,  for  many  men  and  boys  had  come  out  to 
meet  their  mothers,  wives,  and  sisters,  and  to  accompany 
them  with  every  sign  of  rejoicing  to  Menaa.     It  was 


86       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

noticeable  that  every  one  carried  with  them  some  sprig 
or  shoot  of  a  plant,  emblematic,  no  doubt,  of  the  life  which 
recommences  after  the  dreary  months  of  winter  have 
gone  by.  On  arrival  at  Menaa  the  women  scattered  with 
their  burdens  to  their  own  homes,  while  the  musicians 
and  a  goodly  concourse  of  men  and  boys  visited  the 
"  zawia,"  before  which  the  "  band "  gave  a  brief 
performance,  and  then  returning  to  the  village  they 
stopped  in  a  little  open  space  on  the  edge  of  the  very 
steep  western  slope  of  its  rocky  mound,  where  they  were 
rejoined  by  many  of  the  women,  to  listen  to  the  music, 
squatting  upon  the  ground,  or  perched  upon  the  roofs 
of  the  surrounding  houses. 

It  would  almost  appear  that  the  Shawia  choose  their 
rendezvous  for  gatherings  of  this  kind  with  the  skill 
of  a  trained  producer  of  spectacular  plays,  for  I  have 
always  noticed  that  open-air  functions,  in  which  dancing 
takes  place,  are  held  so  that  a  wonderful  natural  back- 
ground of  mountains  or  of  distant  views  enhances  the 
picturesque  character  of  the  scene. 

The  Spring  Feast  at  Menaa  was  an  example  of  this 
natural  instinct  for  the  picturesque.  In  the  brilliant 
light  of  the  midday  sun  the  Shawia  gathered  round  the 
band  on  the  slope,  with  a  wonderful  view  of  a  wild  rocky 
valley,  in  which  the  blossom  gleamed  white  beside  the 
stream  beneath  the  towering  juniper-studded  slopes  of 
the  mountains,  in  the  background.  From  every  coign 
of  vantage  men  and  boys  in  clean  white  garments  eagerly 
watched  the  slow  movements  of  a  gaily  dressed  dancer, 
while  the  crowds  of  women,  seated  apart  from  the  men, 
with  their  gay  kerchiefs  of  shades  which  never  seem  to 
clash,  their  bright  dresses,  and  their  mass  of  silver  chains, 
anklets,  bracelets,  and  brooches  reflecting  in  many  a 
gleaming   point  of  light   the   powerful   rays   of  the   sun, 


AT   THE   "CAPITAL"   OF  THE  AURfiS       87 

added  just  that  gorgeous  medley  of  colour  which  seemed 
necessary  to  complete  the  barbaric  splendour  of  the 
scene. 

The  dancers  at  Menaa  were  all  girls  of  the  village  itself, 
for  the  Kai'd  had  refused  admittance  to  quite  a  number 
of  professionals  from  the  Wed  Abdi,  who  had  arrived 
before  the  fete  hoping  to  realize  large  sums  of  money 
by  dancing  at  it,  for  he  looks  with  disfavour  upon  these 
very  unrestrained  ladies  and  the  brawls  which  their 
presence  so  frequently  entails.  The  dancing,  therefore, 
was  not  as  skilful  as  it  would  have  been  had  the  profes- 
sionals performed. 

The  second  day  of  the  feast  resembled  the  first,  save 
that  few  women  went  overnight  to  the  hill  and  that  the 
music  and  dancing  was  attended  mainly  by  children, 
all,  including  the  tiniest,  of  the  girls  being  most  resplen- 
dently  attired  in  their  mothers'  or  sisters'  clothing  and 
silver  ornaments.  Never  shall  I  forget  the  ridiculous 
appearance  of  some  of  the  smallest ! 

Their  heads  adorned  with  numerous  kerchiefs,  their 
little  bodies  swathed  in  bright  dresses  which  were  ordin- 
arily worn  by  full-grown  women,  and  their  limbs,  heads 
and  breasts  covered  with  all  the  silver  jewellery  the 
family  could  produce,  some  of  the  poor  little  creatures 
presented  a  picture  quite  as  pathetic  as  gay.  Indeed, 
one  little  mite  we  found  after  the  dancing  had  ceased 
sitting  almost  in  tears  beside  the  track,  utterly  unable  to 
stagger  the  few  remaining  yards  to  her  home  beneath  the 
weight  of  the  finery  she  was  almost  concealed  by  until 
she  had  rested  by  the  way. 

Another  young  lady,  upon  whom  finery  sat  heavily, 
was  a  child  of  about  five,  who  lived  near  the  bordj,  and 
rejoiced  in  the  name  of  Rosebud.  As  we  had  come  to 
know  her,  Rosebud  was  one  of  those  children  who  are 


88       AMONG   THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

never  happy  unless  their  persons  are  in  an  indescribable 
state  of  dirt ;  and  Rosebud  was  always  very  happy 
indeed.  Wearing  nothing  but  a  gandoura  many  sizes 
too  small  for  her  and  black  with  grime,  her  unkempt 
hair  flying  in  the  wind,  she  was  always  running  in  and 
out  of  the  courtyard  of  the  bordj,  playing  with  her 
dog,  throwing  stones  at  every  one  else's  dog,  and  getting 
into  any  mischief  she  could  find. 

Upon  the  morning  of  the  second  day  of  the  Spring 
Feast,  when  I  looked  out  of  the  bordj  gate,  I  beheld 
a  remarkable  apparition.  Standing  still  (because  she 
could  scarcely  move),  her  head  swathed  in  silken  scarves, 
her  body  rigid  in  a  large  clean  dress,  her  person  almost 
obscured  by  silver  trinkets,  two  pair  of  anklets  almost 
slipping  from  her  feet,  was  Rosebud — clean  !  Whether 
it  was  the  finery  she  was  wearing,  or  the  ablutions  she 
had  recently  endured,  I  cannot  say,  but  something  induced 
the  poor  little  thing  to  burst  into  tears,  as  she  took  my 
hand  to  be  brought  for  inspection  to  my  wife. 

Even  in  the  Aures  it  seems  to  be  as  necessary  to  suffer 
to  be  beautiful  as  in  the  gayest  cities  of  the  west. 

In  the  evenings  during  the  Spring  Feast  is  played  at 
Mcnaa  and  elsewhere  in  Algeria  the  game  called  "  Koora," 
which  very  closely  resembles  hockey,  and  is  of  very  great 
antiquity.  At  Menaa  the  game  is  taken  very  seriously 
indeed.  The  opposing  sides,  consisting  of  any  number 
of  men  and  lads,  face  each  other  in  a  depression  near 
the  village,  through  which  the  road  now  runs  and  thus 
provides   them   with   an   arena   for  their  warlike   game. 

The  ball,  usually  a  stone,  has  to  be  propelled  to  one 
or  other  of  the  very  ill-defined  boundaries,  which  take 
the  place  of  goals,  by  means  of  bent  sticks,  often  large 
and  fearsome-looking  weapons  cut  from  rough  juniper 
branches  on  the  hills. 


AT  THE   "CAPITAL"   OF  THE  AURfcS       89 

The  game  is  the  most  dangerous  one  I  have  yet  seen. 

Apparently  unhampered  by  any  rules,  the  combatants, 
as  they  might  reasonably  be  termed,  fling  themselves  at 
the  ball,  slashing  right  and  left  with  their  club-like  sticks, 
those  unable  to  get  at  the  ball  itself  seeming  just  as 
contented  to  belabour  those  who  impede  their  way. 

After  a  time  upon  the  first  occasion  on  which  I  watched 
the  melie,  both  sides  frankly  left  the  ball  to  itself  and 
commenced  a  very  good  representation  of  a  mediaeval 
'prentices'  dispute,  until  the  Kai'd,  remembering  that  a 
vendetta  may  follow  an  accident  and  that  he  was  per- 
sonally responsible  for  the  order  maintained  in  his  village, 
ordered  the  game  to  be  stopped,  and  I  produced  from 
my  pockets  the  bandages  I  had  been  advised  to  bring 
with  me  and  proceeded  to  deal  as  well  as  I  could  with 
the  casualties,  eight  in  number,  who  came  to  me  for 
assistance. 

There  appeared  to  be  no  ill-will  resulting  from  the 
game,  but  had  it  continued  the  consequences  might  have 
been  serious. 

The  young  women  and  girls  also  indulge  in  "  Koora  " 
at  this  period  of  the  year,  playing  near  the  bordj, 
with  no  spectators  other  than  a  few  women  and  some 
passers-by.  Doubtless  in  a  desire  to  display  their 
prowess  at  the  expense  of  a  Roumiya,  as  all  white  women 
are  called  in  Algeria,  some  of  my  wife's  friends  invited 
her  to  join  them  in  their  game,  and  were  all  agog  with 
excitement  and  sly  amusement  when  she  agreed. 

But  the  Shawia  ladies  were  unacquainted  with  the 
pastimes  of  an  English  girls'  school,  which  pastimes  are 
not  easily  forgotten,  so  that  their  astonishment  was 
unbounded  when  my  wife  scored  the  first  goal  and  imme- 
diately followed  it  up  with  a  second,  for  the  Shawia  had 
no  idea  of  defence,  nor,  indeed,  of  any  of  the  tricks  of 


90       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

hockey  as  "  scientifically "  played  in  England.  This 
game,  I  think,  greatly  increased  their  respect  for  my  wife, 
and  did  something  to  cement  the  numerous  friendships 
she  had  made  at  Menaa. 

Menaa,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  last  chapter,  can  be 
approached  by  two  distinct  routes  from  the  south,  one 
from  Djemora  and  the  other  from  Beni  Ferah  ;  it  can 
similarly  be  left  by  two  other  tracks,  one  leading  up  the 
valley  of  the  Wed  Abdi  to  Batna  to  the  north,  the  other 
to  Tagoust  at  the  southern  end  of  the  Bouzina  valley, 
and  thence  to  the  Batna-Biskra  railway  through  the 
defile  of  Maafa  to  the  west.  The  first  of  these  two  routes, 
when  the  high  passes  are  clear  of  snow,  is  already  accessi- 
ble to  motor  traffic,  but  the  second  can  only  be  traversed 
by  mule,  and  it  is  with  a  description  of  the  latter  that 
I  will  conclude  this  chapter,  reserving  an  account  of 
our  wanderings  around  Bouzina  and  in  the  Abdi  valley 
for  the  pages  which  follow. 

One  gloriously  fine  morning  in  March,  when  a  spell 
of  really  warm  weather  set  us  thinking  of  procuring 
topees  when  next  we  came  out  of  the  hills  and  which 
heralded  the  approach  of  summer,  never  too  unbearable 
at  such  an  altitude  as  Menaa,  we  left  the  "  capital  of 
the  Aures,"  and,  riding  along  the  road  over  the  new  stone 
bridge  which  spans  the  Bouzina  River,  we  marched 
northwards  up  the  Abdi  valley  for  a  mile  or  so  before 
turning  to  the  north-west  to  commence  the  ascent  of 
the  steep  ridge  which  lies  between  that  valley  and  the 
Wed  Bouzina,  whose  stream  is  too  liable  to  flood  to 
render  its  gorge  a  safe  passage  for  mules  to  Tagoust. 

The  panorama  of  the  Abdi  valley  was  magnificent. 
Deep-green  fields  of  corn,  trees  snow-white  or  pink  with 
blossom,  great  grey  rocky  hills  with  forests  of  juniper 
and   ilex  upon  the   higher  slopes,  glimpses  of  snow-clad 


AT  THE   "CAPITAL"   OF  THE  AUR&S       91 

peaks  to  the  north  ;  a  scene  as  different  from  the  barren 
land  of  Djemora  as  any  one  country  could  well  provide, 
and,  in  its  way,  of  a  beauty  that  cannot  be  exceeded  in 
the  Aures,  for  it  betokened  some  degree  of  prosperity, 
while  many  of  the  great  valleys  of  the  southern  part  of 
the  hills  are  at  once  magnificent  and  forbidding,  desolate 
as  well  as  grand.  A  good  track  and  willing  beasts  soon 
brought  us  over  the  ridge,  along  the  edge  of  a  defile  on 
its  farther  side,  and  so  to  a  distant  view  of  the  gardens 
and  gleaming  minaret  of  Tagoust,  lying  in  a  broad  valley 
at  the  foot  of  a  frowning  wall  of  red  cliffs  towering  over 
the  village  to  the  east.  Fording  the  stream  as  we  neared 
the  village  we  rode  on  through  Tagoust  itself  to  the  White 
Hamlet,  a  small  village  in  which  is  situated  the  house 
of  the  chief.  Although  we  had  not  previously  approached 
Tagoust  from  Menaa,  we  had  visited  the  place  before, 
and  were,  accordingly,  welcomed  as  old  friends  by  the 
Kai'd,  who  provided  us  with  accommodation  in  his  home 
and  entertained  us  to  meals  of  quite  a  sumptuous 
character. 

This  chief  of  Tagoust,  who  holds  sway  all  over  the 
Bouzina  valley,  is  a  magnificent  specimen  of  a  man  ; 
very  tall  and  broad  in  proportion,  he  is  one  of  the  most 
commanding  figures  I  have  seen,  while  a  flowing  white 
beard  adds  considerably  to  the  stateliness  of  his  appear- 
ance. I  spent  most  of  the  few  days  we  passed  at 
Tagoust  in  obtaining  from  the  chief  some  notes  upon  the 
history  of  some  of  the  Shawia  tribes  to  add  to  those  I 
had  obtained  elsewhere,  which,  while  scarcely  of  sufficient 
interest  to  warrant  their  inclusion  in  these  pages,  are 
noteworthy  in  that  they  corroborated  some  statements 
made  by  other  natives  that  a  number  of  Shawia  tribes 
claim  direct  descent  from  the  Romans. 

Beyond  the  fact  that  scattered  Roman  settlers  very 


92       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

possibly  have  left  an  infusion  of  their  blood  in  the  veins 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Aures,  there  seems  to  be  little 
evidenee  yet  available  to  show  that  any  one  tribe  can 
substantiate  a  claim  to  such  descent,  but  the  natives 
themselves  regard  with  no  little  pride  their  boasted 
Roman  ancestry. 

Tagoust  itself,  a  true  Shawfa  village,  is  built  of  stones 
fairly  well  trimmed,  and  it  is  one  of  the  neatest  villages 
I  have  seen  in  the  Aures,  but  it  contains  little  to  interest 
the  casual  visitor  if  he  has  previously  seen  Shawia  settle- 
ments elsewhere ;  instead  of  spending  much  time  in  it, 
therefore,  he  will  probably  continue  his  journey  to  the 
railway  at  Maafa. 

The  track  upon  leaving  Tagoust  rises  steeply,  zigzagging 
up  the  rocky  side  of  a  mountain,  till  it  reaches  a  high- 
lying  valley,  the  northern  portion  of  the  main  valley  of 
Bouzina,  from  which  the  defile  of  the  Maafa  canon  leads 
the  traveller  to  the  west.  As  he  rides  up  this  steep 
hillside  the  wanderer  will  be  travelling  upon  holy 
ground,  for  he  will  be  ascending  the  north-eastern  spurs 
of  the  Djebel  Bouss,  a  mountain  which  is  greatly  revered 
over  a  wide  extent  of  country  in  eastern  Algeria. 

At  a  certain  date  in  every  year  a  pilgrimage  takes  place 
to  the  tomb  of  Sidi  Yahia,  the  great  saint  of  Maafa, 
following  which  the  pilgrims  betake  themselves  to  the 
hallowed  slopes  of  the  Djebel  Bouss  in  order  to  obtain 
some  of  the  holiness  which  the  mountain  is  believed  to 
be  capable  of  bestowing  upon  the  faithful.  Just  before 
entering  the  defile  that  leads  to  Maafa  the  track  by  which 
the  Ouled  Ziane  nomads  move  northwards  in  the  spring 
and  southwards  in  the  autumn  in  their  migrations  with 
their  flocks  and  herds  to  and  from  the  northern  slopes 
of  the  Aures  will  be  found  very  clearly  defined  by  walls 
of  stones,  so  that  the  herdsmen  shall  have  no  excuse  for 


AT   THE   "CAPITAL"   OF  THE  AURfiS       93 

allowing  their  animals  to  stray  and  inflict  damage  in  the 
fields  of  the  Shawia.  The  gorge  of  Maafa  itself,  studded 
with  juniper  and  other  trees,  winding  for  some  miles 
between  precipitous  cliffs,  is  certainly  extremely  pictu- 
resque, but  the  most  interesting  point  to  be  noted  in  it 
by  the  student  of  native  manners  and  customs  is  the 
existence  of  some  cave-dwellings,  which  are  inhabited 
to-day. 

These  dwellings  are  situated  upon  a  ledge  half-way 
up  the  cliff-side  which  is  provided  with  a  natural  roof  in 
the  form  of  overhanging  rocks,  so  that  all  that  the  Shawia 
have  had  to  do  in  order  to  provide  themselves  with  houses 
has  been  to  wall  up  the  front  of  the  ledge  level  with  the 
face  of  the  cliff.  A  spring  or  two  in  the  defile  furnishes 
the  cliff-dwellers  with  water,  so  that  they  merely  lead  the 
same  existence  as  their  compatriots  whose  nest-like 
villages  overhang  the  streams  in  the  valleys  which  we  are 
to  examine  in  a  later  chapter  in  the  centre  of  the  Aures 
massif.  Nowadays,  under  the  rule  of  the  French,  such 
dwellings  are  by  no  means  necessary,  but  of  old  there 
was  much  desultory  fighting  between  the  peoples  of 
Tagoust  and  of  Maafa,  so  that  an  inaccessible  or  easily- 
defended  village  was  a  necessity  to  the  dwellers  in  this 
once  troubled  land. 

I  have  read  that  the  natives  find  it  necessary  in  some 
places  in  this  valley  to  be  hoisted  by  cords  in  order  to 
reach  their  homes  in  the  face  of  the  cliff,  but  I  have  seen 
nothing  myself  to  substantiate  the  statement. 

The  cave-dwellings  are  difficult  enough  to  reach  it  is 
true,  but  I  do  not  think  any  Shawia  would  permanently 
inhabit  a  place  in  which  even  his  goats  could  not  move 
in  and  out,  while  should  this  tale  refer  to  the  disused 
rock-dwellings  at  Maafa  itself,  I  can  only  say  that  my 
wife   and    I    have   managed    to   get    to   most   of   them 


94       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

wearing  boots  which  had  not  even  soles  of  rope  or  of 
rubber ;  and  that  some  others,  inaccessible  to-day,  have 
only  become  so  through  the  crumbling  of  the  rocks 
which  has  occurred  since  their  inhabitants  had  forsaken 
them. 

Maafa  itself,  situated  just  at  the  western  end  of  its 
defile,  where  the  gorge  expands  into  a  wider  valley  with 
less  precipitous  sides,  consists  of  three  hamlets  built,  as 
are  Beni  Ferah  and  Menaa,  upon  eminences  in  the  valley, 
one  of  them  lying  a  mile  or  so  farther  down  the  ravine 
and  containing  the  mosque  and  "  zawia  "  of  Sidi  Yahia, 
the  famous  holy  man  whose  tomb,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
a  noted  place  of  pilgrimage.  The  mosque  has  been 
rebuilt  by  the  French  authorities,  and  presents  little  of 
interest  to  the  traveller,  while  the  zawia  merely  consists 
of  a  group  of  ordinary  Shawia  huts. 

The  valley  of  Maafa  and  its  long  defile  are  beautiful 
enough,  especially  when  spring  clothes  its  numerous 
fruit  trees  with  blossom,  and,  although  the  only  accommo- 
dation available  is  a  small  room  in  the  house  of  the  chief 
who,  like  all  Kaids  of  the  Aures,  is  very  hospitable  to 
his  guests,  the  place  is  well  worthy  of  the  attention  of  a 
traveller  who  can  spare  the  time  to  examine  one  Shawia 
settlement  only. 

As  the  village  lies  but  an  hour  and  a  half's  walk  from 
the  railway  "  halt  "  which  bears  its  name,  it  can  be  visited 
in  a  day  from  El  Kantara,  the  traveller  leaving  the 
"  Mouth  of  the  Desert  "  by  the  early  morning  northward 
train  and  returning  by  the  train  which  goes  down  towards 
Biskra  after  dark. 

When  we  stayed  for  a  short  time  at  Maafa,  at  the 
conclusion  of  a  spell  of  work  in  the  hills,  we  rode  down 
to  the  little  railway  "  halt,"  and,  sending  Belkadi  north- 
wards to  his  headquarters  at  A'fn  Touta,  went  down  by 


\^td 


CAVE-DWELLINGS,    MAAFA. 


SPRING-TIME,    .MAAFA. 


To  (ace  p.  94. 


AT  THE   "CAPITAL"   OF  THE   AUR&S       95 

train  to  El  Kantara  to  rest  after  our  wanderings  and  to 
prepare  for  a  further  journey  in  the  Aures. 

The  reader  who  has  followed  me  up  to  this  point  in 
my  narrative  will  have  found  sketched  for  him  a  short 
mule  journey,  which  can  be  undertaken  by  any  one  who 
is  not  wholly  dependent  upon  the  comforts  of  hotels, 
and  which  will  reveal  to  him  more  of  the  native  life  and 
varied  scenery  of  this  part  of  Algeria  than  any  journey 
of  its  length  that  can  be  undertaken.  None  of  its  stages 
are  long  or  difficult,  and  all  are  through  a  country  whose 
beauties  cannot  even  be  suspected  by  the  traveller  on 
the  railway,  for  the  Aures  massif  jealously  hides  the 
glories  of  its  views  from  all  who  do  not  care  deliberately 
to  seek  them  out.  The  journey  can  be  made  easily  in 
six  days  without  undue  fatigue,  or  it  could  be  completed 
in  three  days  by  sleeping  at  Djemora  and  Menaa,  merely 
passing  through  Beni  Ferah  and  Tagoust  on  the  way. 

Any  one  desirous  of  obtaining,  in  a  short  time,  a  glimpse 
of  Shawia  life  should  find  this  little  journey  well  worth 
the  undertaking,  but  the  autumn  or  the  spring  should 
be  the  season  selected,  for  the  higher  villages  are  cold 
in  the  depth  of  winter. 


CHAPTER    V 
FROM  MENAA  TO  THE  HOME  OF  A  SAINT 

VILLAGES  OF  THE  WED  ABDI — THE  FORESTS  OF  THE  UPPER  AURES — OULED 
ABDI  MORALS — WEAVING  IN  THE  AURES — TIJDAD — MARABOUTS 
AND  THEIR  ORIGIN — THE  HOLY  MAN  OF  TIJDAD — THE  MARABOUT'S 
LUCKY   RING. 

THE  traveller  who  seeks  the  higher  ridges  of  the 
Aures,  in  preference  to  returning  to  civilization 
and  the  railway  through  the  gorge  of  Maafa,  will  notice 
as  he  rides  up  the  road  which,  as  we  have  seen,  has 
reached  Menaa  from  the  north-east,  a  remarkable  simi- 
larity in  the  appearance  and  siting  of  the  numerous 
Shawia  hamlets  which,  built  high  upon  the  side  of  the 
rocky  hills  forming  the  eastern  wall  of  the  Abdi  valley, 
overlook  the  stream  as  it  winds  through  a  narrow  strip 
of  cultivated  land  besprinkled  with  apricot  and  other 
fruit  trees. 

Built  each  upon  a  spur  formed  by  the  junction  of  some 
small  ravine  with  the  main  valley  of  the  Wed  Abdi, 
the  hamlets  were  well  enough  situated  from  the  point 
of  view  of  defence  in  the  old  days  of  inter-tribal  war, 
and,  being  Berber  settlements  unaltered  by  any  Arab 
influence  such  as  we  noticed  in  the  mud-brick  sometimes 
used  at  Beni  Ferah,  they  all  consist  of  clusters  of  tiny 
cottages  built  of  stone,  often  quite  untrimmed,  such  as 
the  traveller  will  find  to  be  the  ordinary  Shawia  dwelling 
all  over  the  heart  of  the  Aures  massif.     The  villages  of 


MENAA  TO  THE   HOME   OF  A   SAINT  97 

the  Wed  Abdi  are  interesting  enough,  and  visits  to  them 
have  enabled  us  to  observe  a  number  of  the  arts  and  crafts 
of  their  inhabitants,  the  valley  itself,  however,  as  we 
marched  up  it  from  Menaa,  became  less  beautiful  as  we 
ascended  it,  the  blossom  on  the  fruit  trees  and  the  narrow- 
ing belt  of  green  beside  the  stream  providing  the  only 
touches  of  colour  in  a  grey  wilderness  of  rock,  but  a  very 
few  miles  distant  to  the  eastward  are  to  be  found  high- 
lying  valleys  in  the  range  of  hills  separating  the  valley 
of  the  Abdi  from  that  of  the  Wed  el  Abiod,  which  afford 
another  contrast  in  scenery  almost  parallel  to  the  abrupt 
change  from  Africa  to  southern  Europe  noticed  in  our 
short  ride  from  Djemora  to  Menaa. 

We  found  an  opportunity  of  visiting  these  valleys 
during  a  brief  expedition  in  search  of  the  wild  boars 
which  roam  in  considerable  numbers  about  them,  but 
which  cannot  exist  in  the  all  but  waterless  country 
around  El  Kantara,  the  home  of  the  Barbary  sheep  and 
the  gazelle. 

Riding  up  the  road  one  afternoon  at  the  beginning  of 
March  we  halted  at  the  village  of  Chir  by  the  wayside, 
half  a  dozen  miles  from  Menaa,  the  Kai'd  of  which  hamlet 
had  agreed  to  conduct  us  to  Taghit  Sidi  Belkheir,  another 
village  of  his  domain,  in  the  area  in  which  pigs  were  to 
be  sought. 

We  found  the  Kai'd  ready  to  start,  and  accompanied 
by  eight  or  ten  members  of  his  "  goum,"  or  body  of 
irregular  troops,  we  hastened  on  our  way  in  order  to 
arrive  at  Taghit  in  time  for  a  good  night's  rest  before 
hunting  in  the  morning. 

Turning  to  the  eastward  a  mile  or  two  above  Chir  we 
left  the  road  and,  fording  the  Abdi  River,  rode  up  a 
precipitous  track  to  the  village  of  Nouader,  one  of  the 
line  of  hamlets  which,  often  no  more  than  a  mile  or  less 

7 


98       AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

apart,  overlook,  as  we  have  seen,  the  valley  from  its 
steep  eastern  side. 

At  Nouader  we  found  a  very  passable  imitation  of  a 
road  winding  along  a  ledge  on  the  hillside  up  a  tribu- 
tary ravine,  at  the  junction  of  which  with  the  Wed  Abdi 
Nouader  lies.  This  road,  in  a  state  of  disrepair  when 
we  saw  it,  had  been  cut  by  the  French  to  enable  the 
produce  of  a  mercury  mine  at  Taghit  to  be  conveyed 
by  wheeled  traffic  to  the  main  road  from  the  Wed  Abdi 
to  Batna  and  the  railway,  but  the  mine  had  been  closed 
down  for  some  considerable  time  when  we  visited  Taghit, 
and  the  track  that  leads  to  it  had  been  neglected  in 
consequence  during  the  war,  most  of  the  buildings  which 
had  been  occupied  by  the  little  colony  of  mining  engineers 
between  the  two  hamlets  of  Taghit,  however,  had  been 
looked  after  by  Shawia  guards,  so  that  we  found  at  least 
a  better  lodging  than  can  be  obtained  in  a  Berber  cottage 
when  we  rode  into  Taghit  in  the  moonlight  and  halted 
at  the  former  residence  of  a  Frenchman. 

Here  we  were  soon  comfortably  installed  in  a  room 
which  boasted  a  fireplace  that  did  not  smoke,  a  conveni- 
ence which  we  should  certainly  not  have  enjoyed  in  a 
native  hut,  and  before  turning  into  our  blankets  consumed 
the  provisions  we  had  brought  with  us  in  front  of  a  heap 
of  blazing  juniper  logs,  for,  despite  the  most  luxuriant 
peach  and  almond  blossom  I  have  ever  seen,  which  we 
found  next  day  in  the  garden  of  our  lodging,  the  night 
was  distinctly  cold  at  the  considerable  altitude  at  which 
the  mines  of  Taghit  lie. 

Next  day,  as  the  light  of  early  morning  increased 
sufficiently  to  enable  us  to  observe  the  country  round, 
we  left  the  mines  and,  passing  through  the  main  hamlet 
of  Taghit  clustered  round  the  minaret  of  a  mosque 
reared  to  the  memory  of  Sidi  Bclkhcir,  the  Moslem  saint, 


MENAA  TO   THE   HOME   OF  A  SAINT       99 

after  whom  the  villages  and  ravine — in  the  Shawia  lan- 
guage "  taghit  " — are  named,  we  found  the  natives  and 
the  dogs,  with  whom  we  were  to  search  for  boar,  awaiting 
our  arrival  upon  a  track  which  led  eastward  to  the  higher 
slopes  of  the  hills.  We  then  continued  our  way  until 
the  ravine  in  which  the  mines  are  situated  expanded  into 
a  little  basin,  fertile  by  comparison  with  the  Abdi  valley, 
for  its  greater  altitude  ensured  it  an  ampler  rainfall, 
surrounded  by  steep  hills  which  revealed  to  us  the  third 
variety  of  scenery  which  the  massif  of  the  Aures  will 
display  to  those  who  pry  into  its  secrets,  namely  the 
forests  of  the  northern  and  higher  portions  of  the  range. 

We  have  attempted  to  give  the  reader  some  idea  of 
the  African  oasis  of  Djemora,  from  the  shade  of  whose 
date-palms  the  traveller  passes  in  so  short  a  journey  to 
the  southern  European  scenery  of  Menaa,  and  as  we 
take  our  readers  to  the  great  canon  of  the  southern-central 
part  of  the  massif  we  shall  again  show  him  a  glimpse  of 
Africa,  this  time  inhabited  by  fair-complexioned  Berbers, 
but  here,  on  the  heights  above  Taghit,  we  lead  him  to 
a  land  clothed  in  a  vast  forest  of  pine  and  cedar,  amid 
which  the  lighter  green  of  other  forest  trees  breaks  the 
somewhat  monotonous  grandeur  of  the  scene,  while  the 
snows  of  Ichemoul,  the  great  mountain  at  the  head  of 
the  Wed  el  Abiod,  lend  an  almost  Asiatic  character  to 
the  panorama  of  woodland  which  is  spread  before  his 
gaze. 

I  think  that  after  months  spent  in  the  glare  of  a  desert, 
or  amid  the  stunted  ilex  and  juniper  trees  with  which  the 
country  around  Beni  Ferah  and  the  Wed  Abdi  is  studded, 
I  experienced  more  pleasure  in  travelling  through  a  real 
woodland  at  Taghit  and  on  the  northern  slopes  of  the 
massif  than  I  should  have  believed  possible  for  any  one 
who  has  sweltered  for  two  years  in  the  heart  of  the  great 


100      AMONG   THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

equatorial  forest  of  Central  Africa,  the  damp  depressing 
climate  of  which,  I  thought,  had  years  ago  removed  any 
partiality  I  may  have  had  for  woodlands  in  general. 

Amid  pleasant  surroundings,  therefore,  we  commenced 
our  search  for  boar,  using  the  dogs  to  follow  up  their 
tracks  and  to  bring  the  animals  to  bay  in  order  to  enable 
us  to  git  a  shot  at  them  when,  breathless  and  perspiring, 
we  had  struggled  up  the  steep  wooded  slopes  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  short  sharp  yelps  which  denoted  that  the 
dogs  had  obtained  a  view  of  their  quarry. 

A  long  morning's  hunt  having  resulted  in  a  boar  falling 
to  the  Kai'd  and  another  to  me,  we  retraced  our  steps  to 
the  mines  of  Taghit,  and  so  to  the  Abdi  valley,  to  continue 
our  work,  after  a  brief  but  thoroughly  enjoyable  respite 
from  research  on  the  forest-clad  slopes  of  higher  Aures. 

A  few  miles  above  Nouader,  on  the  same  side  of  the 
Abdi  valley  and  similarly  situated  upon  the  angle  formed 
by  a  tributary  ravine,  lies  the  important  village  of 
Teniet  el  Abed.  It  is  one  of  the  largest  hamlets,  for  the 
settlements  of  this  district  can  scarcely  be  dignified  with 
a  worthier  name,  occupied  by  the  Ouled  Abdi  tribe, 
and,  in  common  with  most  places  in  the  valley  to  which 
that  tribe  has  given  its  name,  it  bears  an  unsavoury 
reputation. 

In  the  course  of  my  narrative  I  have  frequently  had 
occasion  to  refer  to  the  performances  at  weddings  and 
other  feasts  of  dancers  of  the  Ouled  Abdi  tribe,  ladies 
whose  unrestrained  habits  had  caused  them  to  be 
excluded  from  the  great  Spring  Feast  at  Menaa,  a 
village  whose  inhabitants  pretend  to  Roman  origin,  and 
who  deny  that  they  arc  at  all  closely  related  to  the 
Shawia  farther  up  the  Abdi  valley.  Now  these  dancers, 
who  are  always  picturesquely  attired  in  the  gay 
colours  and  silver  jewellery  which  wc  have  noted  else- 


it 


J 


,L 


V 


MENAA   TO   THE   HOME   OF  A   SAINT      101 

where,  and  who  are  often  really  pretty,  even  when  judged 
by  the  European  standard  to  which,  as  representatives 
of  an  ancient  white  race,  I  presume  they  are  entitled, 
have  been  made  the  subject  of  many  strange  rumours 
in  which  the  wildest  imaginable  orgies  of  vice  figure 
with  astonishing  prominence,  rumours  which  I  am  not 
yet  in  a  position  to  confirm  or  to  deny  from  any  evidence 
I  have  been  able  to  collect.  These  women  are  very 
numerous  indeed  in  the  Wed  Abdi,  and  also  seek  their 
fortunes  much  farther  afield,  and,  as  far  as  I  can  see  at 
present,  their  existence  is  due  to  a  naturally  voluptuous 
disposition  combined  with  the  very  great  ease  with  which 
divorce  is  obtainable  in  the  Aures  ;  against  this  simple 
suggestion,  however,  we  have  to  set  the  fact  that  other 
neighbouring  and  kindred  tribes  may  almost  be  regarded 
as  models  of  virtue  compared  to  the  Ouled  Abdi. 

The  existence  of  the  unrestrained  woman  is  fully 
recognized  in  the  Wed  Abdi,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  their 
presence  is  even  welcomed  at  weddings  in  other  parts 
of  the  Aures ;  no  attempt,  therefore,  is  made  by  the 
dancers  to  conceal  their  profession,  and  we  became 
acquainted  with  quite  a  number  of  the  belles  of  the 
western  Aures  during  our  wanderings  up  and  down  its 
valleys.  We  did  not,  however,  learn  much  of  interest 
from  them,  though  among  their  more  staid  sisters  of 
Teniet  el  Abed  we  were  able  to  carry  on  our  studies  of 
Shawia  arts  and  crafts.  While  pottery  making,  which 
we  noted  at  Beni  Ferah  and  many  other  villages,  is  very 
commonly  carried  on  by  Shawia  women,  it  is  not  abso- 
lutely universal  ;  the  weaving  of  woollen  material, 
however,  can  be  creditably  performed  by  every  Shawia 
woman  we  have  met  with. 

The  white-hooded  cloaks  worn  by  all  the  grown-up 
male   population   of  Algeria,   as   well   as   the   shawls   or 


102    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

haiks  of  silk,  or  of  stripes  of  silk  and  wool,  affected  by 
both  sexes  in  the  richer  households,  while  the  texture 
of  them  varies,  of  course,  in  accordance  with  the  thick- 
ness of  woollen  threads  employed,  are  all  manufactured 
upon  a  very  primitive  hand-loom  by  the  women-folk  of 
the  wearers'  homes. 

The  wool,  clipped  from  the  owner's  sheep,  whose  backs 
are  sometimes  covered  by  pieces  of  old  sacking,  etc., 
should  it  have  been  necessary  to  shear  them  in  cold 
weather,  is  first  washed  in  the  stream,  and,  when  dry, 
it  is  combed  by  drawing  it  by  hand  through  a  line  of 
coarse  iron  spikes  set  up  in  a  flat  piece  of  wood  for  the 
purpose,  after  which  it  is  "  carded,"  that  is  to  say,  rolled 
to  and  fro  between  two  flat  boards,  each  about  eight 
inches  square,  studded  with  innumerable  fine  wire  points, 
the  boards  being  provided  with  handles  to  allow  of 
easy  manipulation.  After  this  it  is  ready  to  be  spun. 
The  little  snowy  tufts  of  wool,  fresh  from  the  carding 
process,  are  wound  around  a  plain  piece  of  cane  about 
eight  or  ten  inches  in  length,  to  the  top  of  which  in  some 
villages,  such  as  El  Kantara,  a  few  cock's  feathers  are 
attached  as  ornament,  and,  holding  this  simple  distaff 
aloft  in  her  left  hand,  the  Shawia  woman  plies  the 
spindle  by  giving  deft  turns  of  the  fingers  of  her  right 
hand  to  a  pendant  stick  attached  to  the  wool  on  the 
distaff  by  the  thread  which  it  spins  as  it  turns. 

One  of  the  commonest  sights  in  an  Aures  village  is 
that  of  a  group  of  women  engaged  in  these  three  pro- 
cesses of  preparing  wool  for  the  loom,  perhaps  one  of 
the  party,  anxious  to  commence  work  upon  a  garment, 
having  called  in  the  assistance  of  her  friends  to  help  her 
hurriedly  to  make  ready  for  the  actual  weaving,  and  it 
w;is  while  making  as  detailed  inquiries  as  possible,  to 
be  published,  we  hope,  some  day,  of  the  technicalities  of 


MENAA  TO  THE   HOME  OF  A   SAINT      108 

spinning  and  weaving  that  my  wife  and  I  made  many 
friends  among  the  women  of  the  hills. 

When  spun  the  threads  which  are  to  act  as  the  "  warp," 
or  vertical  threads  upon  the  simple  upright  loom,  are 
stretched  between  the  two  heavy  wooden  beams,  of 
which  this  loom  consists,  the  upper  beam  being  suspended 
from  two  uprights  of  wood  placed  near  a  wall  in  some 
corner  of  the  dingy  Shawia  cottage,  while  the  lower  beam 
is  held  down  by  pegs  thrust  through  these  uprights. 

By  means  of  an  ingenious  contrivance  a  simple  move- 
ment of  a  stick  allows  the  "  odd  "  and  "  even  "  vertical 
threads  to  be  drawn  forward  alternately  as  the  "  weft," 
or  lateral  threads,  are  passed  by  hand  between  them,  no 
"  shuttle  "  being  employed  by  the  Shawia  or  the  Arabs 
of  the  desert.  One,  two,  or  even  three  women  may  be 
found  working  at  one  hand-loom  in  any  cottage  of  the 
hills,  seated  in  the  narrow  space  between  the  loom  and 
the  wall,  often  nursing  a  baby  as  they  deftly  pass  the 
weft  between  the  warp  threads  and  beat  it  down  upon 
its  predecessors  with  the  aid  of  a  heavy  iron-spiked  imple- 
ment, which,  from  its  weight  and  from  the  apparently 
careless  way  in  which  it  is  used,  might  well  be  expected 
to  tear  to  shreds  the  newly-woven  fabric  on  the  loom. 

It  may  seem  strange  to  any  one  unacquainted  with 
the  vicissitudes  of  a  traveller's  life  in  out-of-the-way 
corners  of  the  world  that  upon  leaving  Teniet  el  Abed, 
a  village  famous  mainly  as  a  home  of  notorious  sinners, 
we  should  immediately  become  the  honoured  guests  of 
a  saint. 

We  had  intended  to  cross  the  rocky  ridge  which  forms 
the  right  wall  of  the  Wed  Abdi  and  stay  for  a  time  in 
the  village  of  Bouzina,  which  gives  its  name  to  the  neigh- 
bouring valley  to  the  north-west,  but  we  received  through 
Belayed,   the   orderly   who   was   then   accompanying  us, 


104     AMONG   THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

such  a  pressing  invitation  from  a  celebrated  marabout, 
named  Boubish,  to  visit  him  at  his  hamlet  of  Tijdad, 
some  two  miles  from  Bouzina,  that  we  determined  to  fall 
in  with  his  suggestion  and  so,  perhaps,  see  something  of 
the  blameless  life  for  which  the  Moslem  saints  are  believed 
to  be  celebrated,  as  well  as  finding  further  opportunities  for 
general  inquiries  in  one  of  the  small  places  in  which  old 
customs  and  crafts  persist  more  hardily  than  in  the  larger 
centres.  We  found  Tijdad  small  enough  to  suit  the  most 
enthusiastic  worshipper  of  the  quiet  of  rural  life. 

Situated  upon  the  steep  north-western  slopes  of  the 
great  grey  ridge,  studded  with  juniper  and  ilex  bushes, 
which  we  had  crossed  on  our  way  from  the  Abdi  valley, 
the  score  or  so  of  tiny  cottages,  overlooking  a  narrow 
stream,  are  scarcely  discernible  from  a  distance,  the 
grey  stone  of  which  they  are  constructed  being  of  the 
same  colour  as  the  surrounding  rocky  hills. 

The  village  is  built  upon  no  special  plan,  the  houses 
lying  huddled  together  on  the  slope,  the  roof  of  one 
upon  the  same  level  as  the  floor  of  its  next-door  neighbour, 
as  is  the  case  in  many  Shawia  mountain  settlements, 
but  if  the  village  itself  presented  few  features  of  interest, 
we  may  at  least  examine  an  individual  house  as  being 
typical  of  a  Berber  dwelling  of  the  western  Aures  in  a 
village  apparently  quite  uninfluenced  by  foreign  ideas  of 
modern  or  mediaeval  times. 

Built  of  untrimmed  stones,  the  interstices  between 
which  are  filled  in  with  mud,  the  walls  include  one  or 
two  strata  of  small  beams  with  a  line  of  sticks  beneath 
them,  the  sticks  running  transversely  through  the  wall, 
the  object  of  which  is  to  add  some  solidity  to  an  other- 
wise rickety  building.  Supported  by  rough  beams  of 
juniper,  sustained  by  two  or  more  juniper  trunks  accord- 
ing to  the  size  of  the  room,  a  number  of  thinner  branches 


MENAA  TO  THE  HOME   OF  A   SAINT      105 

of  the  same  tree  act  as  laths  to  the  earth  with  which  the 
roof  is  covered  ;  the  roof  being  flat  and  unprotected  from 
the  gaze  of  the  passer-by  by  any  wall  or  parapet,  such  as 
we  have  noticed  in  the  Arab  houses  of  El  Kantara,  for 
the  heavy  winter  snow  would  soon  soak  through  the 
roof  should  a  parapet  hinder  its  removal,  and,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  Berbers  do  not  hide  their  women  as  do  the 
Arabs  of  the  plains. 

The  windows,  if  such  exist,  consist  of  one  or  two  small 
rectangular  or  triangular  openings  near  the  roof  in  each 
of  the  four  walls.  As  we  pass  through  the  roughly-hewn 
wooden  door  of  such  a  house,  a  door  fastened  by  one  of  the 
quaint  wooden  locks,  whose  tumblers  are  lifted  by  means 
of  projections  upon  a  wooden  key,  to  be  found  all  over 
Algeria,  in  Egypt,  and  elsewhere,  we  enter  a  small 
rectangular  apartment,  often  the  only  one  the  house  can 
boast  of,  which  is  smoke-begrimmed  and  dingy  to  an 
extent  that  must  be  seen  to  be  believed. 

Of  furniture  there  is  no  more  than  in  the  Arab  houses 
of  El  Kantara  ;  some  large  halfa -grass  baskets,  plaited 
at  home,  in  which  are  stored  grain,  dried  figs  or  apricots, 
and  other  garden  produce,  a  vertical  loom  set  up  beside 
the  wall,  a  stone  quern,  some  pottery  utensils,  roughly 
fashioned  agricultural  tools,  a  goatskin  churn  hanging 
from  a  tripod  of  branches,  a  hanging  basket  to  serve  as 
a  cradle,  such  will  be  found  to  be  the  usual  household 
possessions  of  a  poor  Shawia  family,  possessions  which 
differ  little  if  at  all  from  the  goods  and  chattels  to  be 
found  in  an  Arab  establishment  of  a  similar  kind. 

Along  one  side  of  the  apartment  runs  a  line  of  stakes 
forming  a  fence,  a  yard,  or  perhaps  two  yards,  from  the 
wall,  with  which  the  top  of  the  fence  is  connected  by 
means  of  a  platform  of  sticks.  Upon  this  platform  the 
family  sleeps  upon  old  sacks  and  a  rug  or  two,  while  in 


106    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

the  small  enclosure  beneath  them,  formed  by  the  wall 
and  the  fence,  the  goats  and  sheep,  as  well  as  chickens, 
cats,  etc.,  are  housed  at  night,  the  animal  warmth  arising 
from  their  bodies  apparently  affording  some  comfort  to 
their  ill-clad  owners  sleeping  above  them  during  the 
severe  cold  of  the  mountain  winter,  although  the  traveller 
himself,  when  once  he  has  experienced  a  few  nights  in 
such  surroundings,  will  probably  decide  that  cold  is  the 
least  of  the  evils  which  night-time  can  bring  with  it  in 
the  Aures. 

It  would  be  superfluous  to  add  that  the  interior  of  a 
poor  Shawia  cottage  is  as  filthy  as  can  be  imagined,  and 
far  more  filthy  than  can  be  described. 

The  houses  at  Tijdad  afforded  us  an  opportunity  of 
noting  the  most  primitive,  and  therefore  the  most  inter- 
esting, type  of  dwelling  used  in  the  western  portion  of 
the  Aures  massif,  but  we  were  fortunately  not  obliged 
to  hire  one  of  them  as  a  temporary  abode,  our  host,  the 
marabout,  having  provided  us  with  accommodation  in 
the  shape  of  an  empty  room  built  upon  the  flat  roof  of 
his  own  house.  This  apartment,  built  of  stone  like  all 
the  houses  around,  measured  some  sixteen  feet  by  eight, 
and  was  provided  with  a  very  small  window  at  one  end, 
which,  even  at  the  very  end  of  March,  the  cold  at  night 
compelled  us  to  block  up,  and  it  contained  no  furniture 
whatever,  other  than  a  rug  and  some  halfa-grass  mats 
upon  which  to  sit.  Here  we  spread  our  blankets  and 
settled  down,  making  ourselves  fairly  comfortable,  for 
the  room  was  clean  compared  to  the  ordinary  Shawia 
house,  and,  remarkable  to  relate,  the  rug  was  untenanted. 
But  if  our  slumbers  were  undisturbed  by  any  occupant 
of  the  rug,  they  were,  to  put  it  mildly,  considerably 
curtailed  by  the  persistent  efforts  of  some  rats  to  dine 
off  the  candle  which,  stuck  into  the  neck  of  a  bottle, 


MENAA  TO  THE  HOME   OF  A   SAINT      107 

stood  beside  my  wife's  head,  the  unwelcome  visitors 
even  climbing  upon  her  hat,  which  lay  at  hand,  in  order 
to  reach  the  tallow.  Had  we  much  horror  of  rats  we 
should  have  avoided  the  task  of  studying  native  life  in 
such  places  as  the  Aures,  so  realizing  that  these  creatures 
must  be  expected,  even  in  the  houses  of  the  holy,  we 
merely  asked  our  saintly  host  next  day  if  he  would  lend 
us  the  services  of  a  cat  for  the  defence  of  my  wife's  hat 
and  the  candle.  The  following  evening,  as  we  were 
about  to  retire  to  rest,  the  cat  was  flung  into  our  room. 

A  more  savage  specimen  of  the  so-called  domestic  cat 
I  have  never  yet  beheld.  It  hissed  and  swore  at  our 
every  movement,  and,  despite  all  the  soothing  words 
addressed  to  it  by  my  wife  (who  had  hitherto  liked  cats), 
its  growlings  kept  us  awake  throughout  the  night  quite 
as  effectually  as  the  activities  of  the  rats,  so  that,  called 
upon  to  decide  which  of  the  two  should  be  permitted  to 
annoy  us,  we  agreed  at  once  that  an  army  of  rats  were 
to  be  preferred  to  one  Shawia  cat ;  the  latter,  therefore, 
was  removed  at  dawn  by  a  native,  whose  arm  it  ripped 
open  in  the  process  of  capture,  and  we  resigned  ourselves 
and  our  candles  to  our  first  tormentors  for  the  future. 

Living  in  a  room  built  upon  the  holy  roof  as  the  guests 
of  the  saint  himself,  we  enjoyed  an  excellent  opportunity 
of  obtaining  some  insight  into  the  life  of  a  man  who 
we  found  to  be  interesting  as  a  fair  type  of  the  class  to 
which  he  belonged. 

Although  the  word  "  marabout "  is  easily  the  most 
used  Arabic  term  employed  by  the  tourist  in  Algeria, 
it  seems  probable  that  very  few  European  visitors  to 
North  Africa  are  acquainted  with  the  precise  meaning 
of  the  word,  a  meaning  which  indicates  the  origin  of  the 
class  to  whom  it  is  applied,  and  almost  as  few  know  how 
to  give  it  its  correct  pronunciation,  "  mrabat." 


108     AMONG  THE   HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

To  give  my  readers  a  clear  idea  of  the  origin  of  the 
class  of  holy  men  to  be  found  all  over  Algeria  to-day,  I 
must  refer  them  to  a  translation  of  the  work  of  an  eleventh- 
century  Arabic  author,  El  Bekri,  prepared  by  the 
eminent  French  orientalist,  de  Slane.  In  the  early  days 
of  Arab  conquest  the  extreme  frontiers  of  their  far-flung 
dominions  were  guarded  from  the  attacks  of  the  infidel 
by  means  of  a  chain  of  block-houses,  known  in  Arabic 
as  "  ribat,"  from  a  verb-root  signifying  "  to  bind 
together." 

Those  Moslems  who  wished  to  display  the  greatest 
possible  devotion  to  the  holy  cause  volunteered  to  serve  in 
these  remote  outposts  of  their  faith,  and  during  the  in- 
tervals of  actual  warfare  applied  themselves  to  the  study 
of  their  religion  and  to  prayer.  These  occupants  of  a 
"  ribat  "  were  known  as  "  morabet " — the  spelling  is 
de  Slane's — whence  is  derived  the  modern  Franco-Arabic 
word  of  "  marabout,"  a  term  which  is  often  applied 
nowadays  to  tombs  of  departed  saints  and  to  trees  or 
hills  which  are  believed  to  contain  holiness,  as  well  as  to 
the  living  holy  men  themselves. 

Thus  the  modern  marabout  owes  the  origin  of  his  class 
to  the  devoted  band  of  early  Moslem  stalwarts  who, 
renouncing  the  pleasures  of  this  world,  sought  hardship 
and  banishment  on  the  confines  of  the  Islamic  empire, 
some  trace  of  their  predecessors'  spirit  being  now  dis- 
cernible in  the  hermit-like  existence  of  certain  marabouts, 
while  the  block-house  may,  perhaps,  be  considered  to 
have  left  to  posterity  some  reflection  of  itself  in  the 
M  zawias  "  of  certain  of  the  greater  holy  men,  establish- 
ments which,  as  wc  have  seen,  combine  to  a  certain 
extent  the  properties  of  a  feudal  castle,  a  college,  and 
a  monastery. 

But  the  title  of  "  marabout  "  has  at  some  period  become 


MENAA   TO  THE   HOME   OF  A   SAINT       109 

hereditary,  with  the  result  that  the  term  is  applied  not 
only  to  those  who  really  practise  in  all  sincerity  the 
religion  to  which,  following  in  their  father's  footsteps, 
they  have  devoted  their  lives,  but  also  to  a  few  degenerate, 
dissolute  scoundrels,  the  black  sheep  of  the  family  from 
which  they  are  sprung  ;  while  heredity  of  title  has  in 
many  cases  brought  great  wealth  to  the  saintly  families, 
for  a  well-known  holy  man  has  a  very  wide  following  of 
adherents  who  seek  his  counsel  and  who  subscribe  as 
much  as  they  can  afford  in  money  or  in  kind  to  the 
treasures  of  the  saintly  house,  and  many  a  pious  Moslem 
will  leave  a  handsome  legacy  at  his  death  to  the  particular 
marabout  whose  advice  he  believes  to  have  benefited 
him  during  his  lifetime. 

The  great  majority  of  marabouts  are  very  hospitable, 
not  only  to  their  followers,  from  whom  they  derive  their 
wealth,  but  to  the  wandering  stranger  within  their  gates, 
indeed  it  is  wise  for  the  traveller  in  Algeria  to  cultivate 
as  far  as  possible  the  friendship  of  these  holy  men,  for, 
as  we  have  seen,  their  influence  is  often  very  wide  and 
their  approval  may  be  as  helpful  during  a  journey  as 
their  disapproval  would  probably  turn  out  to  be  the 
reverse.  Thus,  in  1920,  I  joined  a  small  group  of  natives 
in  a  remote  village,  of  whom  I  was  acquainted  with 
only  one. 

His  companions,  though  polite,  were  by  no  means 
effusive  until  my  friend,  having  been  asked  who  I  was, 
remarked  :  "  Don't  you  know  ?  This  is  Simsim,  he 
stayed  with  Sidi  Lakhdar,  the  marabout,  at  Baniane, 
before  the  war."  The  mention  of  this  venerable  saint, 
whose  home  lay  fifty  miles  away,  at  once  thawed  the 
reserve  of  the  party  of  natives,  who  forthwith  carried  me 
off  to  a  cafe  to  cement  the  friendship  formed  through 
our  mutual  acquaintance,  Sidi  Lakhdar,  of  Baniane.     The 


110     AMONG   THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

marabouts  are  sometimes  supposed  to  possess  magical 
powers  of  healing,  and  to  be  endowed  with  "  second 
sight,"  while  an  amulet  in  the  form  of  a  slip  of  paper, 
upon  which  the  saint  has  written  some  magic  words,  is 
believed  to  protect  the  person  who  wears  it,  sewn  up  in 
leather,  or  encased  in  a  silver  box,  suspended  around  the 
neck  ;  but  the  great  power  of  the  marabout  is  to  be 
found  in  the  advice  he  gives  to  his  followers,  advice  which 
they  will  usually  follow  to  the  letter. 

Thus,  should  it  be  possible  for  all  the  marabouts  to 
give  the  same  political  advice  to  their  followers,  very 
widespread  results  would  undoubtedly  ensue,  but,  perhaps 
fortunately,  there  exists  suspicion  and  jealousy,  rather 
than  unity  and  concord  in  the  ranks  of  the  holy  men, 
so  that  combined  action,  with  its  probably  unpleasant 
results,  seems  very  unlikely  to  be  taken  in  the  Barbary 
states. 

Our  host  at  Tijdad,  Ahmed  ben  Mohammed  Boubish, 
appeared  to  be  typical  of  the  best  class  of  marabout. 
Some  fifty  years  of  age,  tall,  with  the  not  unpleasing  face 
of  a  dreamer,  he  lives  with  his  son  and  two  wives  (for 
celibacy  does  not  appeal  to  the  Algerian  saints)  in  a  manner 
as  simple  as  any  of  his  neighbours,  dispensing  generous 
hospitality  to  all  who  pass  his  way,  but  eating  little  him- 
self, though  indulging,  perhaps  to  excess,  in  two  of  the 
luxuries  of  the  Shawia,  coffee  and  cigarettes  of  juniper 
leaf,  the  latter  usually  prepared  for  him  by  a  follower. 
Most  of  his  nights  are  devoted  to  solitary  wandering 
upon  the  rocky  hills,  but,  seated  upon  the  opposite  bank 
of  the  brook,  whence  he  can  overlook  the  hamlet  of 
Tijdad,  to  the  discomfiture  of  any  intending  sinner  among 
its  inhabitants,  he  spends  his  days  in  reverie  or  in  giving 
counsel  to  those  who  seek  his  aid,  many  persons  bringing 
their  disputes  to   him  instead  of  to  a  Kai'd   or  to  the 


THK    HAMLET    OF    TIJDAD. 


•    -    ~    t   „ 


&9S 


^^ 


BOUBISH    RECEIVING    HIS    FOLLOWERS. 


To  face  p-  110. 


MENAA  TO  THE  HOME   OF   A   SAINT       111 

French  law  courts,  his  judgment  being  usually  accepted 
without  question  by  the  parties  concerned. 

Indeed,  he  is  reputed  to  have  prevented  a  lot  of  litiga- 
tion among  his  followers,  for  it  is  said  that  loss  of  his 
case  will  inevitably  punish  the  claimant  who  goes  to  law 
in  defiance  of  Boubish's  advice.  Many  women  bring 
their  troubles  to  the  saint  of  Tijdad  ;  being  invariably 
received  with  the  same  grave  courtesy  which  the  marabout 
extends  to  his  followers  among  the  other  sex,  and  he  is 
accredited  with  the  power  of  divining  an  applicant's 
difficulties  before  they  are  explained  to  him. 

Boubish  certainly  seemed  to  me  to  set  a  very  fair 
example  indeed  of  the  blameless  life  usually  supposed 
by  the  faithful  to  be  led  by  marabouts  as  a  whole,  and 
his  advice,  as  far  as  I  could  judge  from  a  number  of 
instances  which  came  to  my  notice,  appeared  to  be  very 
sound  indeed,  while  he  did  not  seem  to  abuse  his  position 
by  exploiting  to  his  own  pecuniary  advantage  the 
credulity  of  his  followers,  a  temptation  to  which  many 
marabouts  succumb. 

His  views  on  morality  were  strict ;  utterly  disapproving 
of  the  customs  of  the  Ouled  Abdi  dancers,  he  believed 
in  the  removal  of  temptation  as  the  best  means  of  com- 
bating vice,  and,  accordingly,  he  countenanced  no  music 
in  his  village,  the  oboe  being  considered  the  adjunct  of 
the  danseuse,  while,  in  his  opinion,  the  end-flute  (the 
only  other  wind  instrument  of  the  Aures  where  strings 
are  unknown)  might  be  expected  to  give  rise  to  the 
practice  of  serenading,  with  its  usual  unfortunate  result, 
murder,  and  the  beginning  of  a  blood-feud. 

From  what  I  have  seen  of  marabouts  in  the  Aures, 
and  I  am  on  friendly  terms  with  most  of  those  to  be  found 
in  the  massif,  I  have  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that,  so 
long  as  they  will  continue  to  avoid  politics,  their  presence 


112     AMONG   THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

is  a  help  rather  than  a  hindrance  to  the  peace  and  good 
order  of  the  community,  and  that,  looked  at  from  the 
moral  standpoint,  they  do  far  more  good  than  harm. 

While  staying  at  Tijdad  we  frequently  found  occasion 
to  walk  over  the  couple  of  miles  or  so  which  separated 
us  from  Bouzina,  and  so  were  able  to  form  some  acquain- 
tance with  one  of  the  greatest  Berber  centres  of  the 
western  Aures,  the  greatest,  perhaps,  after  the  progressive 
Menaa. 

Lying  at  the  head  of  the  valley  which  bears  its  name, 
at  the  foot  of  the  horseshoe-shaped  rocky  wall  of  Mahmel, 
one  of  the  highest  of  the  Aures  hills,  Bouzina  is  invisible 
until    very    nearly    approached    by    the    traveller    from 
Tijdad,  that  is  to  say,  from  the  east.     As  we  walked  along 
the  track  which  leads  to  the  town  we  first  noticed  a 
couple   of   ruined   towers,   evidently   outworks,    such   as 
are  to  be  seen  near  many  an  Aures  village,  which  had 
doubtless   defended   Bouzina   in   the   troublous   days   of 
old,  and  only  upon  arriving  at  one  of  these  towers  did 
we  become  aware  of  the  existence  of  a  cup-like  depression 
in  the  main  valley,  which  revealed  to  us  the  village  of 
Bouzina,  built  upon  a  knoll  in  the  centre  of  it,  at  our 
feet.     In    this   cup-like    depression   rises    a    considerable 
stream,  flowing  south-westwards  to  Tagoust,  and  thence 
into  a  gorge,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  leads  it  to  its  junc- 
tion   with   the    Wed    Abdi    at    Menaa.      The    houses   of 
Bouzina,  huddled  together  upon  the  knoll,  are,  of  course, 
of  Berber  type,  and  they  are  in  many  cases  well  built, 
for  the  natives  of  the  place  are  noted  as  trimmers  of 
building  stones,  in  which  capacity  they  obtain  employ- 
ment in  many  a  distant  village  of  the  hills. 

But  my  readers  have  accompanied  me  to  enough  of 
the  villages  of  the  western  Aures  ;  I  will  not,  therefore, 
weary  them  with  a  description  of  Bouzina,  which  differs 


MENAA  TO  THE  HOME  OF  A  SAINT       113 

in  no  essential  detail  from  such  places  as  Beni  Ferah 
and  Menaa. 

I  will  rather  lead  them  over  the  Mahmel,  and  so  to 
the  railway,  in  order  to  invite  them  in  succeeding  chapters 
to  explore  the  different  settlements  of  the  central  part 
of  the  massif,  settlements  which  will  be  found  to  be 
more  picturesque,  more  remote,  and,  therefore,  more 
interesting  than  any  of  the  Abdi  or  Bouzina  valleys. 
As  we  climbed  into  the  saddle  to  take  our  departure 
from  Tijdad  our  host,  the  marabout,  appeared  to  be 
depressed,  and,  calling  me  aside,  he  handed  me  a  ring 
from  his  own  finger,  a  ring  of  silver  in  which  was  set  a 
piece  of  blue  glass,  telling  me  that  I  was  to  keep  it  as  a 
protective  charm,  such  trinkets  belonging  to  holy  men, 
as  well  as  the  food  they  offer  to  their  guests,  being 
considered  to  contain  some  of  the  holiness,  in  Arabic 
"  baraka,"  of  their  sainted  owners.  I  thanked  Boubish 
heartily  for  his  present,  and  rode  off. 

As  we  wended  our  way  up  the  narrow  ledge  on  the 
hillside,  which  zigzags  from  the  valley  of  Bouzina  to 
the  crest  of  Mahmel,  I  had  been  admiring  the  wonderful 
view  of  the  broad  valley  which  lay  beneath  us,  and,  in 
some  doubt  as  to  the  name  of  a  distant  village  or  peak, 
I  turned  to  inquire  it  of  the  orderly,  Belayed,  who  was 
riding  a  few  paces  behind. 

Touching  his  horse  with  the  spur,  Belayed  came  up  to 
hear  my  remark,  whereupon,  I  suppose,  his  horse  bit 
my  mule  in  the  tail,  for,  next  instant,  the  tellis  upon 
which  I  was  riding  and  I  descended  some  yards  down 
the  precipitous  rock-strewn  slope,  on  the  edge  of  which 
lay  the  track,  leaving  my  mule  kicking  furiously  on  the 
path.  Having  been  picked  up,  severely  shaken,  and 
firmly  convinced  that  I  had  broken  at  least  one  rib,  I 
was  helped  up  to  the  path  again,  and  the  natives  gathered 

8 


114    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

round  me  to  inquire  how  much  I  was  hurt,  all  the  time 
exchanging  glances  among  themselves. 

At  last  Belayed  said  :  "  The  marabout  foresaw  this. 
He  told  me  he  was  uneasy  about  you,  and  did  not  wish 
to  let  you  go  ;  that  is  why  he  gave  you  that  ring.  If 
you  had  not  been  wearing  it  you  must  have  been  killed." 

Nursing  my  rib,  my  temper  as  ruffled  as  my  body  was 
shaken,  I  was  on  the  point  of  inquiring  why  the  ring  had 
not  prevented  the  fall  altogether,  but,  realizing  that  I 
really  had  had  a  remarkable  escape,  I  decided  to  agree 
with  Belayed  and  not  to  risk  offending  the  marabout  by 
expecting  more  than  his  powers  were  supposed  to  have 
done  for  me. 

When  once  we  had  crossed  the  ridge  of  Mahmel  we 
found  ourselves  at  a  great  altitude  above  the  sea,  upon 
a  tableland  which  sloped  away  to  the  wooded  country 
to  the  north. 

As  we  traversed  this  plateau  snow  began  to  fall — we 
were  already  in  the  first  half  of  April — and  we  rode  up 
to  the  home  of  another  marabout  on  the  edge  of  the 
forest  in  a  blinding  snowstorm.  This  marabout,  though 
he  practises  agriculture  rather  than  religion,  being 
merely  an  hereditary  saint,  proved  to  be  most  hospitable, 
and  quickly  provided  us  with  a  hot  meal  and  with  a  huge 
and  magnificent  carpet,  spread  before  a  roaring  fire,  to 
lie  upon,  remarking  naively  as  he  pointed  it  out  :  "  You 
need  not  be  afraid  of  it ;  the  weather  is  too  cold  for 
fleas  !  " 

A  statement  which  was  apparently  true,  for  we  suffered 
no  ill-effects  from  contact  with  it  before  we  rose  at  dawn 
to  continue  our  way  to  Batna. 

The  track  lay  through  grand  forests  of  cedar,  pine, 
and  other  trees,  whose  size,  though  in  no  way  remarkable, 
struck  us  as  extraordinary  after  our  stay  in  a  country 


MENAA  TO  THE  HOME   OF  A   SAINT       115 

in  which  dwarf  juniper,  ilex,  and  fruit  trees  are  the  largest 
members  of  the  vegetable  kingdom  ;  the  region  we  had 
now  entered  resembling  in  all  respects  the  area  in  which 
we  hunted  boar  near  Taghit  Sidi  Belkheir. 

As  we  came  to  the  summit  of  the  slopes  overhanging 
Batna  we  obtained  some  glorious  views  of  the  level 
plateau  to  the  north  of  the  Aures  massif,  in  which  that 
French  settlement  lies,  and,  riding  down  these  wooded 
slopes,  we  passed  through  the  great  gates  in  the  loop- 
holed  walls  of  this  garrison  town,  finally  pulling  up  at 
an  hotel.  Having  paid  off  our  men,  and  arranged  for 
the  return  of  Belayed  to  his  headquarters,  I  took  my 
ribs  to  a  doctor,  and  my  wife  began  to  arrange  our  baggage 
with  a  view  to  returning  to  El  Kantara  by  train  on  the 
morrow  to  pick  up  various  cases  of  specimens  for  the 
museum,  which,  as  occasion  offered,  I  had  sent  there  to 
await  my  arrival,  thus  relieving  our  baggage  of  much 
weight  as  we  moved  about  the  hills. 


CHAPTER    VI 

TO   THE   CENTRAL  VALLEYS  OF 
THE    MASSIF 

THR    VALLEYS    OF    THE    CENTRAL    AURES — OUR    RECEPTION    AT    BRANIS 

IRREGULAR   CAVALRY   OF   THE   DESERT — A    "  FANTASIA  " — FEAST   AT 

BRANIS — THE      "  MECHWI  " MECHOUNECH,      ITS      OASIS      AND      ITS 

OOROE A    GREAT    ARISTOCRATIC    FAMILY — DEFENSIBLE    GRANARIES 

OF   BANIANE — A   ROMAN    "  SEGGIA." 

HAVING  explored  the  valleys  of  the  western  portion 
of  the  Aures  massif  we  turned  our  attention  to 
those  of  the  central  part  of  the  range,  namely  the  great 
canon  of  the  Rassira,  a  stream  which  enters  the  Sahara 
through  the  gorge  of  Mechounech  some  twenty  miles 
to  the  east  of  Biskra,  and  the  higher  valley  of  this  same 
stream,  known  in  the  northern  portion  of  its  course 
as  the  Wed  el  Abiod,  that  is  to  say  the  "  White 
River." 

To  my  mind  the  scenery  of  the  canon  of  the  Rassira 
in  its  beauty  and  its  grandeur,  is  not  excelled  by  any 
of  the  other  valleys  of  the  Aures,  even  if  its  equal  can  be 
found  in  any  other  part  of  Algeria  with  which  I  am  ac- 
quainted, and  the  very  heart  of  this  great  gorge  lies  no 
more  than  thirty  or  forty  miles  in  a  direct  line  from  the 
crowded  hotels  of  Biskra. 

It  may  seem  almost  incredible  therefore,  that  in  1914 
my  wife  was  said  by  the  Shawia  to  be  the  first  European 
woman  to  be  seen  in  some  of  its  hamlets  in  which  we 
stayed,  a  statement  amply  corroborated  by  the  eagerness 

116 


THE   CENTRAL  VALLEYS  OF  THE  MASSIF  117 

of  the  women,  and  of  those  who  had  not  wandered  as 
far  as  the  railway,  to  obtain  a  glimpse  of  her. 

The  reason  of  the  tourist's  neglect  of  the  area  is,  however, 
by  no  means  far  to  seek. 

Roads  have  hitherto  been  non-existent  through  the 
Rassira  valley,  and  some  of  its  mule  tracks  are  difficult ; 
the  Kai'ds  of  this  region  appear  to  hold  authority  over 
wider  stretches  of  territory  than  in  the  valleys  we  have 
hitherto  visited  and,  accordingly,  the  hospitality  of  their 
homes  is  less  frequently  to  be  found,  the  traveller  often 
being  obliged  to  hire  some  dingy  Shawia  hovel  in  which 
to  live;  while  the  "guides"  of  the  tourist  centres,  as 
a  rule,  appear  almost  to  be  ignorant  of  the  very  existence 
of  this  great  ravine  and  its  interesting  Berber  settlements, 
their  ignorance  doubtless  being  increased  by  the  lack  of 
creature  comforts  to  be  found  therein  and  the  admitted 
dislike  of  the  Shawia  to  these  "  hangers  on  "  to  Western 
civilization  and  wealth. 

Nevertheless  the  day  may  not  be  so  far  distant  when 
the  rocks  of  the  Rassira  will  resound  to  the  blast  of  the 
motor  horn  and  its  canon  become  one  of  the  great 
spectacles  of  Algeria ;  indeed,  as  we  shall  find  later  on, 
a  bordj  similar  to  those  at  Djemora  and  Menaa  has  already 
been  erected  in  the  centre  of  the  valley ;  so  that  the 
wanderer  in  search  of  a  glance  at  primitive  native  life 
and  at  villages  unspoiled  by  the  introduction  of  European 
ideas  will  be  well  advised  to  pack  his  blankets  on  a  mule 
and  betake  him  to  the  central  Aures  in  the  van  of  the 
influx  of  visitors  which,  I  think,  must  immediately  follow 
upon  the  construction  of  a  road  passable  to  wheeled 
traffic,  especially  to  cars. 

Obviously,  with  Mechounech,  the  southern  entrance 
to  the  Rassira,  at  so  short  a  distance  from  Biskra  and 
the  track  between  the  two  lying  over  level  desert  devoid 


118    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

of  sand,  Biskra  would  seem  to  be  the  ideal  centre  from 
which  to  approach  the  central  part  of  the  Aures  massif; 
but  for  two  reasons  we  again  selected  El  Kantara  as  our 
base  for  our  journey  into  this  country. 

Firstly,  by  proceeding  from  the  Mouth  of  the  Desert 
and  leaving  Biskra  to  the  south-west  of  our  road,  we 
should  find  an  opportunity  of  visiting  the  oasis  of  Branis, 
another  settlement  of  the  Ouled  Ziane  nomad  Arabs, 
somewhat  similar  to  Djemora,  which  we  had  not  previously 
seen,  and,  secondly,  the  small  demand  by  tourists  for 
riding  and  baggage  animals  at  El  Kantara  would, 
we  thought,  lead  to  our  being  able  to  secure  them  at 
prices  lower  than  those  demanded  at  Biskra,  prices  which, 
though  the  animals  were  to  be  hired  for  one  stage  of  the 
journey  only,  would  be  likely  to  increase  those  asked  for 
each  subsequent  hiring,  with  the  result  that  prices  in 
general  would  be  enhanced  throughout  our  wanderings 
in  the  hills. 

Upon  leaving  El  Kantara  for  Mechounech  we  marched 
direct  to  Djemora,  and  there  spent  a  week  or  so  as  the 
guests  of  our  old  friend  Basha  Bashir,  subsequently 
moving  on  the  ten  or  a  dozen  miles  to  the  south  to  meet 
the  Administrator  of  the  region  at  the  oasis  of  Branis. 
This  gentleman,  who  has  since  fallen  in  the  service  of 
his  country  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin,  had  arranged 
to  leave  his  headquarters  at  Ain  Touta  by  train  and, 
quitting  the  railway  at  El  Outaya,  to  ride  into  Branis 
from  the  west  while  we  approached  the  oasis  from  the 
north  accompanied  by  the  Kai'd  of  Djemora,  attired  in 
the  scarlet  burnous  which  denotes  his  office  and  mounted 
upon  his  best  horse  saddled  with  the  most  ornate  harness 
he  possessed. 

Evidently  the  chief  of  Branis  had  decided  that  the 
simultaneous  visit  of  his  Administrator  and  of  two  British 


THE  CENTRAL  VALLEYS   OF  THE  MASSIF  119 

travellers  was  an  occasion  to  be  marked  by  as  much 
ceremonial  as  he  could  arrange  for  ;  as  we  came  in  sight 
of  the  hillock  upon  which  the  village  stands,  therefore, 
a  musket  was  fired  from  a  house-top  (a  complimentary 
salute,  we  were  carefully  informed)  and,  as  we  rode  through 
its  tortuous  lanes  we  noticed  a  display  of  the  "  tricouleur  " 
and  a  number  of  arches  made  of  palm-leaves  such  as 
we  had  not  previously  met  with  in  the  Aures.  I  am 
afraid  we  rather  spoiled  the  dramatic  effect  intended  to 
be  produced  by  a  meeting  with  the  Administrator  in 
the  village  itself  beneath  the  folds  of  the  French  flag, 
by  arriving  an  hour  too  early,  but  we  made  the  best 
of  this  hour  by  comfortably  settling  into  the  room  pro- 
vided for  us,  partaking  of  a  lunch  which,  if  we  could  have 
foreseen  what  lay  before  us,  we  should  have  left  untouched, 
and  finally  walking  a  little  way  along  the  track  towards 
El  Outaya  to  meet  the  French  officer  who  was  to  arrive 
accompanied  by  the  Kai'd  and  his  "  goum." 

Soon  the  plaintive  notes  of  the  oboe  and  the  beating 
of  drums  heralded  the  approach  of  the  Administrator 
and  his  escort.  Headed  by  a  couple  of  mules  each 
carrying  an  oboe  player  and  a  drummer,  the  little  column 
came  into  sight  round  a  corner  of  the  palm  groves  of 
the  oasis ;  the  Administrator  immediately  followed  by 
the  Kaid,  clad  in  his  scarlet  robe  and  riding  with  drawn 
sword,  who  in  his  turn  was  closely  attended  by  a  mounted 
man  bearing  the  brightly  coloured  standard  of  the 
"  goum,"  behind  whom  rode  a  score  or  so  of  the 
"  goumiers  "  themselves  attired,  as  their  personal  fancies 
dictated,  in  cloaks  of  many  brilliant  hues. 

As  the  French  officer  dismounted  to  greet  us  the  horse- 
men lined  up  and  discharged  their  smooth-bore  guns 
into  the  air  while  their  chief  gravely  saluted  with  his 
sword,   after  which  formal  greeting   we   walked    slowly 


120    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

back    to    the    village    accompanied    by    the    Kai'd,    the 
musicians  and  the  "  goum." 

The  "  goumier,"  or  irregular  armed  follower  of  an 
Algerian  chieftain,  can,  perhaps,  best  be  likened  to  the 
"  special  constable "  recruited  in  England  to  meet  the 
requirements  of  a  national  emergency. 

Certain  natives  of  good  character  and  undoubted  loyalty 
are  voluntarily  enrolled  in  the  area  of  each  chief  upon 
the  understanding  that  they  shall  be  called  upon  to  serve 
the  French  in  times  of  internal  commotion  under  the 
leadership  of  their  Kai'd.  These  men  are  provided  with 
arms  varying  in  character  according  to  the  locality  or 
the  services  they  will  be  required  to  render. 

In  the  higher  country  of  the  Aures  the  "  goumier " 
usually  serves  on  foot,  in  the  northern  portion  of  the 
Sahara  and  upon  the  plateau  he  responds  to  a  summons 
to  arms  mounted  upon  his  own  horse,  while  far  down 
in  the  great  desert  he  rides  the  "  mehari,"  or  trotting 
camel,  so  well  suited  to  the  vast  stretches  of  barren  waste 
he  will  be  obliged  to  cover  in  the  execution  of  his  duty. 

Should  outlaws  appear  in  a  district,  terrorizing  its 
usually  peaceful  inhabitants,  the  Kai'd  will  summon  his 
"  goum  "  to  effect  their  capture  ;  should  one  tribe  in  the 
Sahara  attempt  a  predatory  excursion  into  the  pastures 
of  its  neighbours'  flocks  the  "  goumicrs  "  will  assist  the 
authorities  to  bring  the  freebooters  to  book ;  and,  in 
the  extreme  south,  the  "  goums  "  of  friendly  Arab  tribes 
have  long  served  the  useful  purpose  of  keeping  open  the 
caravan  routes  despite  the  marauding  proclivities  of 
the  Tawarek  Berber  nomads  and  have  rendered  signal 
service  to  the  French  in  providing  mobile  columns  by 
means  of  which  these  bandits  have  been  driven  discom- 
forted to  their  far-off  desert  homes  and  peaceful  traffic 
has  been  restored  to  the  great  highways  of  the  Sahara. 


THE  CENTRAL  VALLEYS  OF  THE  MASSIF  121 

But  the  "  goumier  "  has  not  served  the  cause  of  civiliza- 
tion in  his  own  land  alone.  Many  a  troop  of  irregular 
horse  has  accompanied  the  French  in  their  various  cam- 
paigns in  Morocco,  and  in  the  early  days  of  the  great 
war  many  of  the  gaudy  flags  of  the  desert  irregular  horse- 
men fluttered  in  the  breeze  over  the  plains  of  Flanders 
when  the  manhood  of  all  warrior  nations  combined  to 
face  the  Hun.  Although,  of  course,  the  "  goumiers " 
who  served  in  Flanders  were  fully  equipped  with  modern 
weapons  and  with  uniforms,  in  their  own  country  these 
horsemen  turn  out  upon  mobilization  attired  as  pleases 
them  best,  a  fact  which  makes  a  ceremonial  parade  of 
the  "  goums  "  a  very  brilliant  spectacle  indeed,  for  every 
Arab  cavalier  loves  finery  and  outward  show  as  much 
as  anything  this  world  can  offer  him. 

In  the  dazzling  Algerian  sunshine,  beneath  which  no 
colours  seem  to  clash,  the  many  hues  displayed  by  a  group 
of  desert  horsemen,  their  gorgeous  burnouses  tossed  from 
side  to  side  by  the  prancing  of  their  spirited  little  horses, 
usually  kept  tied  up  to  increase  their  natural  restiveness 
before  any  important  assembly,  lend  a  wonderful  tinge 
of  colour  to  the  throng,  their  gold  embroidered  harness 
adding  many  a  twinkling  point  of  light  to  the  barbaric 
splendour  of  the  scene. 

It  is  scarcely  to  be  wondered  at,  therefore,  that  a  dis- 
play of  horsemanship  by  a  number  of  gaily  cloaked 
warriors  mounted  upon  horses  thus  brilliantly  capar- 
isoned in  the  wide  desert  beneath  a  burning  sun  should 
constitute  one  of  the  most  gorgeous  spectacles  that  can 
be  found  the  world  over. 

A  "  fantasia,"  as  such  a  display  is  termed,  upon  a  very 
small  scale  it  is  true,  was  organized  by  the  Ka'id  of  Branis 
to  celebrate  the  arrival  in  his  territory  of  the  Adminis- 
trator and  ourselves.     Upon  returning  to  the  village  with 


122    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

our  host,  having  partaken  of  the  usual  cups  of  coffee, 
we  ascended  to  the  roof  of  a  house  overlooking  the  stream, 
which  flows  down  to  Branis  from  Djemora,  whence  a  good 
view  was  obtainable  of  the  level  country  beyond  the 
river,  the  place  selected  for  the  display. 

Having  forded  the  stream  the  horsemen,  numbering 
but  a  score  or  so,  for  the  local  "  goum  "  was  by  no  means 
large,  lined  up  on  our  left  and  proceeded  to  gallop  past 
us  one  by  one,  their  wiry  little  horses  urged  to  their  utmost 
speed,  each  rider  uttering  a  long  drawn  cry  as  he  rode 
and,  standing  in  his  stirrups,  firing  blank  charges  from 
the  double  barrelled  shot-gun  with  which  he  was  armed, 
one  shot  usually  being  fired  over  the  horse's  head,  as 
if  at  an  enemy  in  flight,  and  the  second  over  the  cantle 
of  the  saddle  at  some  imaginary  pursuer  behind. 

When  each  "  goumier  "  had  thus  given  his  individual 
display  the  whole  party  galloped  past  in  line  headed  by 
the  standard-bearer,  his  gaily  coloured  banner  streaming 
in  the  breeze. 

This  concluded  an  exhibition  which  was  more  remarkable 
for  the  brilliance  of  its  general  effect  than  for  any  special 
skill  displayed  by  the  riders  who  took  part  in  it. 

The  Arab  is  by  no  means  so  accustomed  to  the  practice 
of  tricks  of  horsemanship  as  are  the  cow-boys  of  America 
and  other  world-famed  horsemen,  but  he  sets  up  a  high 
standard  of  efficiency  for  those  who  desire  to  pride  them- 
selves upon  their  riding. 

For  example,  it  is  said  that  no  man  can  call  himself  a 
horseman  who  cannot  perform  the  "  fantasia,"  with  its 
shooting  and  turning  in  the  saddle,  holding  the  while 
a  coin  between  the  sole  of  each  shoe  and  the  stirrup, 
the  downward  curve  of  the  stirrup  at  both  ends  rendering 
this  test  by  no  means  easy  ;  while  a  couple  of  really 
accomplished  horsemen  will  occasionally  give  the  display 


THE    "  GOUM  "    AT    BEANIS 


COOKING    A    "  JIECHW'I. 


To  face  p  122. 


THE   CENTRAL   VALLEYS  OF  THE  MASSIF  123 

side  by  side,  one  with  his  right  foot  in  his  neighbours' 
"  near  "  stirrup  and  the  other  with  his  left  in  the  "  off  " 
stirrup  of  his  companion. 

The  little  impromptu  "  fantasia "  at  Branis  having 
been  brought  to  a  close,  we  wandered  around  the  village 
of  mud  brick,  exactly  resembling  the  desert  villages  we 
have  already  described,  which  forms  the  base  of  the 
southern  portion  of  the  Ouled  Ziane  nomads  as  Djemora 
constitutes  the  headquarters  of  their  kinsmen  immediately 
in  the  north,  and  at  sundown  we  returned  to  the  house 
of  the  Kai'd  to  be  regaled  with  a  feast  which  caused  us  to 
regret  having  partaken  of  any  food  for  several  days  past. 
I  will  not  weary  the  reader  with  a  description  of  the 
first  nine  courses,  consisting  of  various  well -cooked  stews 
and  kuskus,  our  attacks  upon  which  were  encouraged 
by  such  exclamations  as  "  Eat,  eat,"  "  You  are  eating 
nothing,"  "  Perhaps  you  do  not  like  Arab  food  "  from 
our  host,  the  Kai'd,  who  waited  upon  us  in  person  ;  but 
I  will  pass  on  to  the  national  "  plat  d'honneur  "  of  Algeria 
with  which  the  very  sumptuous  repast  was  terminated, 
namely  the  "  mechwi,"  or  lamb  roasted  whole.  This 
dish,  which  every  wealthy  Arab  loves  to  place  before 
an  honoured  guest,  would  certainly  be  the  most  appetizing 
form  of  sustenance  the  traveller  can  meet  with  in  his 
wanderings  in  the  desert  and  the  hills,  were  it  not  for  the 
fact  that  it  is  almost  always  preceded  by  a  number  of 
other  courses  of  which  he  has  been  practically  forced  to 
consume  an  immoderate  amount  and  that  he  is  expected 
to  attack  it  in  no  half-hearted  manner,  despite  his  previous 
efforts  to  do  justice  to  the  hospitality  of  his  host. 

The  lamb  is  cooked  in  the  following  manner.  A  fire 
of  logs  is  made,  the  glowing  embers  of  which  are  placed 
upon  the  ground  at  some  distance  from  the  fire  itself. 
A  pole  having  been  thrust  through  the  lamb  from  head 


124    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

to  tail,  the  carcase  is  held  horizontally  over  the  glowing 
embers  by  two  men  who  slowly  and  continuously  turn 
it  upon  the  spit  formed  by  the  pole,  one  of  them  basting 
it  the  while  by  means  of  a  tuft  of  wool  upon  the  end  of 
a  stick  which  he  dips  into  a  bowl  containing  melted  butter 
and  salt.  The  cooking  being  accomplished  over  the 
embers  all  risk  of  charring  the  meat  in  the  flames  of  a 
fire  is  obviated,  while  the  fact  that  the  guests  have  to 
wait  upon  the  convenience  of  the  cook  instead  of  the 
cook  upon  that  of  the  diner  ensures  that  the  lamb  is 
eaten  exactly  when  "  done  to  a  turn."  When  ready 
for  eating  the  carcase  is  removed  from  the  pole  and 
placed,  often  standing  upon  the  stumps  of  its  legs,  upon 
a  large  brass  tray  which  is  set  in  the  centre  of  the  group 
of  guests,  upon  the  floor  in  the  more  primitive  families 
or  upon  the  table  in  the  case  of  most  Kai'ds. 

No  vegetables  or  condiments  are  served  with  the 
"  mechwi."  When  the  dish  is  served  each  guest,  murmur- 
ing the  customary  "  Bismillah,"  "  In  the  name  of  God," 
proceeds  to  tear  off  with  his  fingers  some  of  the  crisp  and 
delicious  outer  skin  from  the  back  and  ribs,  after  which 
he  tears  or  cuts  away  some  of  the  meat  from  the  same 
part  of  the  animal,  endeavouring  the  while,  if  he  be  a 
European,  to  convey  to  his  host  the  impression  that  he 
is  helping  himself  more  liberally  than  is  actually  the 
case,  for  the  Arabs  expect  very  full  justice  indeed  to  be 
done  to  their  favourite  dish.  It  is  remarkable  that  the 
flesh  of  the  back  and  the  ribs  and  the  animal's  kidneys 
are  considered  to  be  the  best  portions  of  the  carcase,  the 
hind  legs  and  the  shoulders  being  usually  left  to  be  finished 
by  the  servants  outside,  a  task  which  they  accomplish 
in  no  uncertain  manner,  leaving  not  one  scrap  of  meat 
upon  the  bones.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  almost  inter- 
minable feast  offered  to  us  by  the  Ka'id  wc  turned  in  to 


THE  CENTRAL   VALLEYS   OF  THE  MASSIF  125 

spend  a  comfortable  night  upon  a  pile  of  carpets  spread 
for  us  in  a  vacant  room  in  the  chiefs  house,  the  Adminis- 
trator being  accommodated  in  the  apartment  used  by  him 
as  an  office  during  his  tours  of  duty  in  the  area,  preparatory 
to  an  early  start  for  Mechounech  on  the  morrow. 

The  French  officer  who  had  met  us  at  Branis  had  never 
before  visited  Mechounech,  an  oasis  which  lay  outside 
his  jurisdiction  ;  he  had  arranged,  therefore,  to  ride  with 
us  to  that  village  where  we  were  to  meet  another  French 
official  of  our  acquaintance  who  would  at  that  time  be 
returning  to  his  post  in  the  hills  after  a  visit  to  Biskra. 

We  were  quite  a  considerable  party,  therefore,  when 
we  rode  out  of  Branis  in  the  soft  light  of  dawn,  heading 
towards  the  level  desert  of  the  Sahara. 

The  greater  part  of  this  long  day's  journey  over  a  stony 
plain  with  a  distant  panorama  of  the  great  oasis  of  Biskra, 
lying  like  a  shadow  upon  the  desert  to  south-west,  almost 
constantly  in  view,  was  uneventful  for,  until  we  reached 
the  lower  level  of  the  actual  Sahara  at  the  village  and  small 
oasis  of  Droh  in  the  early  afternoon,  we  came  upon  no 
sign  of  human  life  other  than  an  occasional  group  of  tents 
of  the  Ouled  Ziane. 

The  natives  of  Droh  were  remarkable  in  that  they 
afforded  us  a  passing  glimpse  of  the  third  human  type 
to  be  found  in  south-eastern  Algeria,  namely  the  negroid 
type  which  occupies  the  long  since  dried  up  bed  of  the 
Wed  Rhir  between  Biskra  and  the  great  desert  centre 
of  Touggourt  some  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  to  the 
south. 

Continuing  our  journey  we  turned  to  the  north-east 
and,  following  more  or  less  closely  the  line  of  the  stream 
which  flows  down  the  central  valley  of  the  Aur&s,  we 
rode  through  the  broken  country  between  the  Sahara 
proper   and   the   foothills    of    the   massif    towards   the 


126    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

oasis  of  Mechounech  at  the  southern  end  of  the  gorge 
which  bears  its  name.  Shortly  before  reaching  the  oasis 
a  cloud  of  dust  overtaking  us  from  the  direction  from 
which  we  had  come  and  distant  cries  of  "  Ee-oop-ee," 
by  means  of  which  native  carriage  drivers  urge  on  their 
beasts,  heralded  the  arrival  of  the  Administrator  who 
was  to  meet  us  at  Mechounech  and  who,  having  left  his 
horse  at  that  village,  had  hired  a  vehicle  in  Biskra  to 
convey  him  to  rejoin  it. 

Upon  arrival  at  the  stream,  however,  which  flows 
through  the  oasis  and  must  be  crossed  before  the  traveller 
can  enter  the  village  of  Mechounech  the  superiority  of 
the  humble  mule  over  the  swifter  moving  carriage  for 
up-country  journeys  in  Algeria  was  made  manifest,  for 
the  fiacre  became  wedged  against  a  boulder  amid  the 
swirling  waters  of  the  river  and  had  to  be  abandoned  by 
its  passenger  for,  although  the  greater  part  of  the  track 
from  Biskra  to  Mechounech,  lying  over  the  dry  soil  of 
a  desert,  can  be  easily  and  fairly  comfortably  traversed 
in  a  carriage,  even  the  bed  of  the  stream  presenting  in 
normal  times  but  an  inconsiderable  obstacle  to  wheeled 
traffic,  upon  the  occasion  of  our  visit  rain  in  the  north 
had  swollen  the  river  to  unusual  proportions  and  thereby 
rendered  the  ford  almost  impassable  to  a  fiacre. 

Doubtless  the  track  will  very  shortly  be  improved,  if 
indeed  the  work  has  not  already  been  carried  out  by  the 
time  these  lines  are  in  print,  for,  as  we  have  noted,  Mech- 
ounech stands  at  the  southern  gateway  to  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  districts  in  the  whole  of  eastern  Algeria, 
an  area  which  must  sooner  or  later  become  a  favourite 
with  those  travellers  who  delight  in  grand  scenery  and 
strange  scenes. 

The  oasis  itself,  with  its  many  thousands  of  stately 
palms,  lying  at  the  foot  of  the  precipitous  wall  of  rock 


THE  CENTRAL   VALLEYS   OF  THE  MASSIF  127 

which  separates  the  Sahara  from  the  central  Aures  valleys, 
is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  to  be  found  on  the  edge  of 
the  desert. 

The  narrow  winding  lanes  between  its  date  gardens,  the 
minaret  of  its  principal  mosque  gleaming  white  in  the 
glorious  sunshine  over  the  tumble  of  mud  brick  huts 
which  forms  the  main  village  combine,  with  its  mountain 
background,  to  make  up  a  picture  of  rare  beauty  at  this 
point  where  hills  and  desert  meet,  while  its  wonderful 
gorge — the  merest  cleft  in  a  great  grey  wall  of  rock  through 
which  the  stream  of  the  Rassira  finds  its  way  to  the 
Sahara,  a  gorge  so  narrow  as  to  offer  no  bridle  path  beside 
the  river  to  the  traveller  who  would  pass  through  it — 
may  well  rank  in  its  almost  forbidding  grandeur  with 
any  of  the  great  defiles  of  the  Algerian  hills.  But  for 
all  its  natural  beauty,  which  may  soon  make  it  the  resort 
of  the  motorists  of  Biskra,  Mechounech  is  not  a  place 
to  appeal  very  strongly  to  the  student  of  Shawia  life. 

The  natives  of  the  place,  as  a  rule,  claim  to  belong 
to  the  Berber  race  and,  indeed,  fair  complexions  and 
the  Shawia  dialect  are  common  enough  in  the  village, 
but  the  negroid  Rhouara  and  Arabs  from  the  neighbouring 
Zab  Chergui  area  of  the  Sahara  are  also  to  be  found 
mingled  with  the  population,  a  fact  which  caused  me  to 
undertake  few,  if  any,  researches  in  the  place,  for  I  have 
always  preferred  to  study  the  habits  of  the  Berbers  in 
localities  as  far  removed  as  possible  from  the  outside 
influence  of  adjacent  peoples.  We  accordingly  spent 
but  a  few  days  in  this  beauty  spot  of  the  fringe  of  the 
Sahara,  in  the  course  of  which,  however,  we  made  some 
most  interesting  acquaintances,  among  them  members 
of  one  of  the  great  aristocratic  families  of  Algeria,  for 
the  Kaid  of  the  district  came  of  very  ancient  lineage 
indeed. 


128    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

The  Kai'd  himself,  Bou  Hafs  ben  Chenouf,  who  has 
succumbed  to  a  lingering  illness  since  our  last  meeting 
with  him,  had  his  residence  at  the  northern  end  of  the 
Rassira  valley,  over  the  whole  of  which  he  held  sway, 
but  he  happened  to  be  at  Mechounech  at  the  time  of  our 
arrival,  on  a  visit  to  his  younger  brother,  its  headman 
or  sheikh,  in  whose  house  we  were  lodged,  for  the  rest- 
house  or  bordj  which  has  recently  been  built  at 
Mechounech  was  not  then  in  existence,  and  the  Kai'd 
himself  owned  but  a  small  dwelling  in  the  oasis. 

The  family  of  ben  Chenouf  is  one  of  the  most  respected 
in  Algeria,  and  has  been  one  of  the  most  powerful  in  the 
days  when  individual  chiefs  held  absolute  sway  over 
the  land. 

Of  Arab  descent,  an  ancestor  having  held  important 
office  under  the  Caliphs  of  Baghdad  in  the  early  Middle 
Ages,  the  ben  Chenouf  were  a  ruling  family  in  the  country 
they  now  inhabit  as  long  ago  as  the  fifteenth  century, 
when  the  authority  of  the  Bey  of  Constantine  over  them 
was  probably  far  more  nominal  than  real. 

Upon  the  arrival  of  the  French  a  number  of  influences 
combined  to  induce  the  family  to  espouse  the  cause  of 
the  European,  a  cause  which  its  members  have  ever  since 
most  loyally  served,  so  that  position  and  honour  have 
continued  to  fall  to  their  lot  up  to  the  present  day. 

The  head  of  the  clan,  Si  Ali  Bey,  held  the  office  of  Bash- 
Agha,  or  overlord,  near  Khcnchela  to  the  north  of  the 
Aures  massif  until,  a  year  or  two  ago,  he  fell  a  victim  to 
a  miscreant's  treacherous  ball ;  Bou  Hafs  held  the 
position  of  Kai'd  of  the  Rassira  and  the  Amar  Khraddou, 
a  very  large  "  Kai'dat  "  indeed  ;  various  other  members 
of  the  family  of  ben  Chenouf  hold  or  have  held  other 
responsible  offices  in  the  administration  ;  and,  upon  our 
visit  to  Mechounech,  we  were  invited  to  return  later  in  the 


THE  CENTRAL  VALLEYS  OF  THE  MASSIF  129 

year  to  be  present  at  a  military  parade  and  "  fantasia  " 
at  which  three  brothers  of  the  family  were  to  be  decorated 
by  the  French  with  different  ranks  of  the  Legion  of  Honour 
for  services  rendered,  not  only  at  home  but  when  in 
command  of  their  "  goumiers  "  in  various  campaigns  in 
Morocco. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  French  in  this  instance, 
as  in  many  others,  have  found  some  of  their  most  valu- 
able and  influential  supporters  among  the  aristocracy 
of  Algeria,  among  families  whose  word  was  law  in  the 
land  before  the  advent  of  settled  conditions  and  the 
approach  of  the  civilization  of  the  West,  for  among  no 
people  in  the  world  is  pride  of  lineage  held  in  greater 
esteem  than  among  the  Arabs  of  Algeria  who,  I  am 
convinced,  would  even  prefer  to  be  thoroughly  mis- 
governed and  taxed  beyond  endurance  by  a  despot  of 
undisputed  pedigree  than  to  be  administered  faithfully 
and  well  by  a  chief  whom  they  could  regard  as  an  upstart 
or  a  person  of  inglorious  ancestry. 

Bou  Hafs  ben  Chenouf  entertained  us  royally  during  our 
stay  at  Mechounech.  Speaking  perfect  French,  having 
travelled  extensively  in  France  as  well  as  in  his  own 
country,  he  was  typical  of  the  progressive  Arab  Kaid  of 
to-day,  yet  he  never  laid  aside  the  customs  of  his  people, 
dressing  always  in  the  costume  of  the  desert  and  leading 
a  life  of  stern  simplicity  in  his  home,  when  not  engaged  in 
the  occupation  he  loved  so  well  of  entertaining  an  official 
or  a  guest.  Anxious  to  resume  our  researches  among 
the  Berbers  of  the  Aures  in  villages  in  which  the  risks 
of  an  infusion  of  foreign  customs  into  their  life  could  be 
regarded  as  reduced  to  a  minimum,  we  moved  on  from 
Mechounech  to  the  oasis  of  Baniane  higher  up  the  valley 
of  the  Rassira  stream,  riding  up  the  steep  hillside  through 
which  runs  the  gorge,  leaving  that  defile  to  the  west  for, 

9 


180    AMONG  THE   HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

as  I  have  pointed  out  before,  the  bed  of  a  mountain 
torrent  in  a  chasm  of  the  Aures  is  often  dangerous  in  the 
autumn  or  the  spring,  owing  to  its  liability  to  sudden 
flood. 

Having  surmounted  the  rocky  ridge  which  overlooks 
Mechounech,  with  its  glorious  view  of  the  Sahara  stretched 
like  a  carpet  at  our  feet,  we  descended  to  the  course  of 
the  river,  now  flowing  through  a  less  restricted  channel, 
and  followed  it  till  we  came,  after  but  an  hour  or  two's 
slow  riding,  to  the  date  gardens  of  Baniane  and  the  first 
of  the  hamlets  which  lie  scattered  amidst  its  groves. 
A  mere  glimpse  at  this  hamlet  with  its  houses  of  stone 
showed  us  that  we  had  returned  to  the  land  of  the  Shawia, 
while  a  feature  of  the  place,  unknown  in  the  western 
portions  of  the  Aures  through  which  we  had  wandered, 
at  once  arrested  our  attention  and  brought  to  our  notice 
one  of  the  outstanding  differences  between  the  villages 
of  the  Rassira  and  those  of  other  parts  of  the  massif. 
Upon  the  brink  of  a  sheer  wall  of  rock  overlooking  a 
bend  in  the  river,  its  walls  built  flush  with  the  edge  of 
the  cliff  some  fifty  feet  above  the  water,  stood  a  large 
four-storied  stone  building,  each  story  provided  with 
a  rickety  balcony  from  which  a  small  doorway  led  into 
the  house,  the  whole  edifice  so  much  larger  than  any 
Shawia  structure  we  had  yet  seen  that  we  at  once  in- 
quired of  Belayed,  the  orderly  who  accompanied  us, 
what  its  purpose  might  be. 

It  was,  he  replied,  the  "  guelaa  "  or  defensible  granary 
of  Baniane,  a  building  which  we  soon  discovered  to  be 
characteristic  of  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  Shawia  settle- 
ments in  the  Rassira  valley.  These  buildings  have 
been  called  into  existence  by  the  exigencies  of  the 
troublous  times  before  the  French  occupation  of 
Algeria.     Obviously  rain  falls  more  plentifully  upon  the 


THE  CENTRAL  VALLEYS   OF  THE  MASSIF  181 

hills  than  in  the  Sahara  and,  just  as  obviously,  in  the 
bad  old  times  of  inter-tribal  strife,  when  a  man's  lawful 
possessions  were  those  which  he  could  acquire  by  means 
of  his  own  right  arm  (or,  more  probably,  by  means  of  a 
musket-shot  fired  from  behind  a  rock  at  the  back  of  an 
unsuspecting  member  of  some  neighbouring  community), 
the  dwellers  in  the  hills  would  be  only  too  glad  to  turn 
to  the  fullest  advantage  the  streams  resulting  from  this 
rainfall  by  tapping  them  with  the  "  seggias  "  we  have 
already  described  to  an  extent  which  would  allow  the 
minimum  quantity  of  their  precious  water  to  reach  the 
burning  plains  of  the  south  ;  and  this  despite  any  agreement 
such  as,  I  believe,  was  entered  into  between  the  inhabitants 
of  the  hills  and  of  the  desert  with  regard  to  the  quantity 
of  water  which  should  be  allowed  to  pass  out  of  the 
mountains. 

Superior,  then,  as  are  the  crops  of  the  Shawia  to  those 
of  their  Arab  neighbours  of  the  Sahara  to-day,  in  the 
troublous  times  gone  by  they  were  probably  very  much 
more  abundant  still  ;  small  wonder,  therefore,  that  the 
nomads  of  the  desert  may  often  have  been  driven  by 
sheer  want  to  undertake  those  predatory  raids  the  smallest 
occasion  for  which  would  be  eagerly  embraced  by  the 
warrior  herdsmen  to  whose  "  goums,"  now  under  the 
orders  of  the  French,  we  have  referred  in  this  chapter. 
Defensive  measures  to  meet  such  raids  were  thus  rendered 
necessary  to  the  Shawia,  who  constructed  these  granaries 
for  the  purpose  of  storing  their  grain  in  a  place  in  which 
its  capture  would  be  a  task  of  extreme  difficulty  to  an  ill- 
armed  foe. 

To  judge  by  the  appearance  of  the  "  guelaa  "  at  Baniane, 
and  of  others  which  we  subsequently  examined,  the 
buildings  were  eminently  suitable  for  their  purpose. 
Its  outer  walls  rising  flush  with  the  edge  of  the  cliff  offer 


132     AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

no  possibility  for  assault  to  an  attacking  force  approaching 
it  from  the  river,  whose  flint-lock  muskets  would  make 
little  or  no  impression  upon  its  masonry,  while  the 
balconies,  used  for  the  drying  of  fruit  in  the  piping  times 
of  peace,  would  afford  excellent  accommodation  to  the 
sharp-shooters  of  the  garrison  who  could  obtain  shelter 
in  the  doorways  leading  out  on  to  them  should  the 
enemy's  fire  become  unpleasantly  hot.  The  interior  of  the 
"  guelaa,"  a  veritable  labyrinth  of  narrow  lanes  in  many 
cases  bridged  by  ladders  of  palm  trunk  giving  access  to 
the  upper  floors,  provides  shelter  in  its  dingy  store- 
rooms for  the  families  of  the  beleaguered  village,  and  the 
entrance  to  the  defensible  granary  is  usually  so  narrow 
as  to  enable  the  merest  handful  of  determined  men  to 
withstand  the  attacks  of  the  largest  party  of  raiders 
which  a  desert  chieftain  would  be  likely  to  bring  against 
them. 

In  considering  the  impregnability  or  otherwise  of 
Shawia  villages  it  is,  of  course,  necessary  to  bear  in  mind 
that  the  long-barrelled  flint-lock  musket,  still  frequently 
to  be  found  in  the  Aures  and  the  desert,  was  the  weapon 
upon  which  its  assailants  had  perforce  to  rely,  the  arme 
blanche  of  the  horseman  being  practically  useless  in 
an  assault  upon  a  mountain  stronghold  whence  rocks 
and  other  missiles,  in  addition  to  bullets,  may  be  showered 
down  by  the  garrison  from  their  eerie-like  position  to 
the  discomfiture  of  any  storming  party  which  might 
attempt  to  scale  the  rocks  to  come  to  grips  with  the 
defence. 

The  flint-lock  muskets,  and  pistols  of  the  same  descrip- 
tion, arc  so  commonly  used  to  this  day  by  the  Shawia, 
although  many  of  them  are  retained  unmarked  and  un- 
authorized by  the  government,  that  we  have  found  a 
native  in  the  fastnesses  of  the  hills  who  made  his  liveli- 


THE   CENTRAL   VALLEYS   OF  THE   MASSIF  133 

hood  by  chipping  flints  for  use  in  them,  a  survival,  in  a 
more  or  less  modern  form,  of  a  prehistoric  art  now  well- 
nigh  passed  away  before  the  advance  of  civilization, 
with  its  cartridges  and  percussion  caps  for  fire-arms 
and  its  matches  to  replace  the  now  rarely  noticed  flint- 
and-steel. 

Close  to  the  "  guelaa  "  of  Baniane  may  be  seen  a  relic 
of  antiquity  in  the  form  of  a  "  seggia,"  still  in  use,  hewn 
in  the  solid  rock  by,  it  is  said,  the  hands  of  the  Romans 
whose  irrigation  works  carried  out,  perhaps,  upon  the 
same  system  which  obtains  to-day  in  the  Aures  were 
evidently  constructed  with  a  view  to  the  welfare  of 
posterity  rather  than  to  economy  of  labour  on  the  part 
of  the  ancient  engineer  ;  other  traces  of  archaeological 
interest,  however,  we  did  not  discover,  for  our  study  of 
existing  native  life,  necessitating  a  constant  readiness 
to  listen  to  discourses  by  any  chance  acquaintance,  many 
of  which  discourses  were  as  valueless  as  some  others  have 
proved  fruitful,  and  to  investigate  any  art  or  craft,  super- 
stition or  rite  which  might  present  itself  to  our  notice, 
occupied  too  much  of  our  time  to  admit  of  our  embarking 
upon  any  inquiries  into  matters  relating  to  centuries 
long  since  passed  which  are  properly  the  study  of  arch- 
aeologists equipped  with  the  training  necessary  to  their 
pursuit. 

At  Baniane  we  were  received  by  a  very  well-known 
marabout,  Sidi  Lakhdar,  to  whom  I  have  briefly  referred 
in  a  previous  chapter  and  who  welcomed  us  most 
cordially  to  his  "  zawia,"  which  forms  a  little  hamlet  of 
its  own  amid  the  palm  groves  on  the  western  side  of  the 
oasis.  He  at  once  provided  us  with  a  couple  of  rooms 
in  which  to  work  and  to  sleep,  or  rather  to  spend  the 
night,  for  the  carpets  placed  in  our  "  bedroom  "  were  so 
well   populated  as  to  render  sleep  impossible  upon  the 


134    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

night  of  our  arrival,  so  that  it  was  only  after  tactfully- 
explaining  that  we  always  preferred  to  spread  our  blankets 
upon  the  bare  floor,  and  thus  causing  the  removal  of 
the  carpets,  that  we  were  able  to  settle  down  in  com- 
parative comfort  and  commence  our  work  among  the 
Shawia. 

The  family  of  the  marabout  were  most  eager  to  see  my 
wife,  indeed  I  was  asked  if  anything  had  been  done  to 
offend  us  because  she  had  not  expressed  a  wish  to  visit 
his  wives  immediately  upon  our  arrival  at  the  "  zawia," 
so  that  she  was  able  to  spend  much  time  among  his 
womenfolk,  securing  as  a  result  quite  a  number  of  silver 
trinkets  which  our  host  and  his  hospitable  wives  and 
daughters  pressed  upon  her  at  the  numerous  "  receptions  " 
given  in  her  honour,  entertainments  at  which  the  female 
members  of  the  family  and  their  lady  friends  danced 
to  the  rhythmic  beat  of  a  tambourine  in  a  manner  more 
suggestive  of  the  professional  danseuses  of  the  Wed 
Abdi  than  of  the  relatives  of  a  great  and,  I  believe,  really 
worthy  saint. 

Old  Sidi  Lakhdar  has  remained  a  staunch  friend  to  us 
since  we  first  visited  him  in  his  mountain  home  ;  indeed, 
as  I  have  already  pointed  out,  his  friendship  has  more 
than  once  secured  us  a  welcome  in  villages  far  removed 
from  Baniane,  for  his  influence  is  very  wide,  and  this 
friendship  we  find  all  the  more  valuable  in  that  it  was 
quite  spontaneous  and  has  not  been  called  into  being  by 
anything  we  may  have  been  able  to  do  for  the  old  man 
nor  by  gratitude  for  presents  offered  him,  which  latter 
are  responsible  for  so  many  so-called  friendships  between 
natives  and  Europeans  in  North  Africa.  Having  made 
a  fair  number  of  acquaintances  among  the  Shawia  of 
Baniane,  and  having  become  the  recipients  of  much 
hospitality,  wc  decided  to  attempt  to  return  a  little  of 


THE  CENTRAL  VALLEYS  OF  THE  MASSIF  135 

the  latter  by  means  of  a  "  mechwi,"  such  as  we  had 
partaken  of  at  Branis.  We,  therefore,  purchased  a 
lamb  for  the  absurdly  low  price  asked  before  the  war, 
and  invited  our  friends  to  dinner. 

This  little  feast  was  an  unqualified  success,  indeed  it 
is  discussed  even  now,  after  the  lapse  of  a  number  of 
years,  whenever  we  meet  an  acquaintance  from  Baniane, 
and  did  much  to  enable  me  to  carry  on  inquiries  into 
various  phases  of  native  life  in  the  hills  of  a  character 
too  technical  or,  it  must  be  confessed,  too  indelicate  to 
be  described  in  any  work  other  than  a  strictly  ethno- 
graphical report. 

Apart  from  our  interest  in  our  work,  which  kept  us 
busy  from  morning  until  night,  our  stay  at  Baniane 
was  distinctly  enjoyable,  for  the  place  is  beautiful  as  well 
as  interesting.  Lying  at  the  foot  of  the  western  slopes 
of  Ahmar  Khraddou,  the  "  Red  Cheeked "  mountain 
whose  glorious  shades  of  pink,  deepening  to  purple  at 
sunset,  delight  the  eye  of  the  hotel  dwellers  of  distant 
Biskra  as  they  gaze  upon  the  panorama  of  the  Aures  to 
the  east,  the  great  date  forest  of  Baniane  amidst  and 
around  a  number  of  small  hillocks  combines  some  of 
the  beauties  of  a  desert  oasis  with  those  of  a  settlement 
of  the  mountain  valleys. 

As  I  have  remarked,  the  houses  of  Baniane  are  of  the 
Shawia  type,  their  inhabitants  also  displaying,  in  the 
vast  majority  of  cases,  the  physical  characteristics  of 
the  Berber  race,  an  indication  that  a  study  of  the  customs 
of  the  natives  of  the  central  valleys  of  the  Aures  can  be 
conveniently  commenced  there  before  the  traveller  finds 
his  way  to  the  remoter  hamlets  of  the  Rassira  canon 
itself. 


i 


CHAPTER    VII 
LIFE    IN    A    CLIFF    VILLAGE 

THE  RASSIRA  CANON — A  VILLAGE  ON  THE  CLIFF — SHAwfA  WOMEN'S  CURI- 
OSITY — MAGIC  IN  THE  AURES — DEMONS — AMULETS — "  THE  MOTHER 
OF  THE  NIGHT  " — A  REMARKABLE  PROPHECY — DIVINATION  BY  A 
SORCERESS — EVIL  SPELLS — CHARMS — CLIMATE  OF  THE  RASSIRA 
VALLEY GHOUFI. 

THE  bridle  path  from  Baniane  to  the  northward, 
a  path  which  may  well  be  transformed  into  a 
road  accessible  to  cars,  led  us  along  a  wide  stony  valley 
bounded  upon  the  east  by  the  great  ridge  of  the  Red 
Cheeked  mountain  and  on  the  west  by  the  peaks  which 
separate  the  Wed  Abdi  near  Menaa  from  the  central 
valley  of  the  Aures,  a  valley  which  for  a  few  miles  beyond 
Baniane,  though  beautiful  enough  for  its  mountain 
panoramas,  betrayed  to  our  gaze  no  sign  of  the  wondrous 
scenery  it  contains  until,  turning  off  the  main  track  to 
the  eastward,  we  headed  for  our  destination,  the  remote 
hamlet  of  Ouled  Mansour. 

As  we  rode  slowly  forward  across  the  apparently  level 
country  of  the  centre  of  this  valley  we  suddenly  halted 
to  find  ourselves  upon  the  lip  of  a  hitherto  unseen  ravine, 
the  vast  chasm  of  the  Rassira  gorge  yawning  at  our  feet. 

The  totally  unexpected  arrival  at  the  edge  of  a  canon 
some  four  hundred  yards,  as  I  should  guess  it,  from  lip 
to  lip,  so  deep  as  to  reduce  the  stately  date-palms  which 
border  the  stream  below  to  the  dimensions  of  mere 
oleander  bushes  in  the  eyes  of  the  beholder  on  the  cliff 

136 


>v 


&* 


*5      • s*! 


OULED   MANSOUR   AND   THE    BASSIRA    CANON. 


To  face  p.  130. 


LIFE   IN   A  CLIFF  VILLAGE  187 

edge,  its  sides  sheer  and  in  places  overhanging,  its  barren 
rocks  glowing  bright  in  the  glare  of  an  afternoon  sun, 
produced  an  impression  which  would  require  a  far  abler 
pen  than  mine  to  describe,  a  closer  examination  of  the 
canon  revealing  features  as  interesting  as  its  first  sudden 
appearance  had  been  grand.  This  marvellous  gorge, 
the  merest  cleft  wrought  by  the  action  of  its  swiftly- 
flowing  stream  throughout  untold  centuries,  in  which 
a  greater  rainfall  had  made  of  the  river  a  more  powerful 
instrument  than  it  is  to-day,  runs  unseen  until  closely 
approached  through  the  central  portion  of  the  wide 
desert  valley,  to  which  I  have  already  alluded,  from  the 
higher  portion  of  that  valley  near  the  village  of  Tifelfel 
in  the  north  to  the  broken  ground  around  Baniane  which 
we  had  just  left  behind  us,  numerous  small  water-courses, 
most  of  them  now  dry,  from  the  slopes  of  Ahmar  Khraddou 
forming  tributary  ravines  which  enter  the  main  canon 
from  the  east. 

As  we  gazed  from  the  cliff  edge  numerous  tiny  hamlets 
of  stone  huts  were  to  be  seen  clinging  to  the  very  brink 
of  the  precipice  upon  the  eastern  or  left  side  of  the  great 
gorge,  while  upon  the  angle  formed  by  the  gorge  and  a 
deep  tributary  valley,  a  site  such  as  we  have  already 
noticed  as  a  first  favourite  with  the  Shawia  for  the  build- 
ing of  their  settlements,  the  village  of  Ouled  Mansour 
could  be  descried  in  the  distance,  perched  like  an  eagle's 
nest  upon  the  towering  rock,  the  deep  green  of  its  date 
groves  and  more  emerald  patches  of  cultivated  land 
beside  the  stream  hundreds  of  feet  beneath  it  affording 
a  welcome  relief  to  eyes  strained  by  the  contemplation 
of  the  shining  grandeur  of  the  barren  rocks  around. 

Although  but  a  comparatively  short  distance  in  a 
direct  line  lay  between  us  and  our  destination  when  we 
first  came  suddenly  upon  the  brink  of  the  Rassira  gorge, 


138    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

it  was  necessary  to  wander  many  a  weary  step  before 
we  could  reach  it,  for  Ouled  Mansour  lay  upon  the  farther 
side  of  the  canon,  a  descent  into  which  could  be  made 
by  very  few  and  precipitous  paths  ;  accordingly  we  rode 
for  some  time  along  the  very  edge  of  the  overhanging 
cliff,  a  track  on  which  the  nervous  traveller,  or  one  whose 
head  is  not  thoroughly  to  be  trusted  in  such  localities, 
will  do  well  to  close  his  eyes  and  rely  upon  the  sagacity 
of  his  mountain-bred  mule  to  bring  him  in  perfect  safety 
to  the  point  at  which  a  narrow  boulder-strewn  path 
zigzags  from  the  cliff  edge  down  to  the  stream  beneath. 
Arrived  at  this  point  we  dismounted,  for  the  track  was 
one  of  the  few  mule  paths  I  have  seen  in  the  Aures  upon 
which  I  have  more  confidence  in  my  own  feet  than  in 
those  of  even  the  surest  beast,  and  scrambled  down  to 
the  gardens  and  the  river  ;  our  approach,  which  had  been 
noticed  long  since  in  the  village,  causing  a  small  crowd 
to  assemble  on  the  housetops  high  above  us  on  the 
opposite  cliff,  while  two  or  three  men  hastened  down  from 
the  hamlet  to  meet  us. 

Arrived  beneath  the  grateful  shade  of  the  palm  trees 
we  mounted  to  ford  the  river,  some  fifteen  yards  in  width, 
whose  swiftly  flowing  waters  almost  washed  the  bellies 
of  our  mules,  and  on  its  eastern  bank  we  were  greeted 
by  the  headman.  The  Kaid,  Bou  Hafs,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  his  residence  farther  to  the  north,  so  that  at 
Ouled  Mansour  there  was  to  be  found  no  chief  to  offer 
us  shelter,  but  a  message  from  Bou  Hafs  had  directed 
the  headman  to  find  us  a  hut  in  which  to  sleep  ;  after 
bidding  us  welcome  to  his  village,  therefore,  this  official 
informed  us  that  he  had  selected  a  couple  of  apartments 
cither  of  which  wc  could  occupy  upon  payment  of  a  very 
small  "  rent "  to  its  owner  and,  he  stated,  we  should 
experience   no  difficulty  in  securing  the  services    of    a 


LIFE   IN   A   CLIFF   VILLAGE  139 

Shawia  woman  to  cook  for  us  such  simple  meals  as  we 
could  expect  in  so  remote  a  hamlet. 

Sending  Belayed  with  the  mules  by  a  circuitous  route 
through  the  tributary  ravine,  the  only  track  by  which 
beasts  can  approach  the  village  from  the  river,  we  followed 
the  headman  slowly  up  a  path  resembling  a  flight  of 
rough  hewn  steps  up  the  very  knife-edge  of  the  rocky 
angle  upon  the  summit  of  which  the  village  lies  and  at 
last,  entering  a  narrow  tunnel  in  the  rock,  we  scrambled 
upward  to  emerge  into  the  sunlight  upon  a  rocky  platform 
in  the  hamlet  of  Ouled  Mansour  itself. 

We  proceeded  immediately  to  the  selection  of  a  tempor- 
ary home  and,  having  declined  the  offer  of  one  house 
on  account  of  a  filthy  condition  to  which  our,  by  this 
time  considerable,  experience  of  life  in  native  hovels 
could  scarcely  reconcile  us,  we  decided  upon  a  single 
apartment  which,  though  occupied  by  its  owner's  family 
up  to  the  moment  of  our  arrival,  was  clean  by  com- 
parison with  some  lodgings  we  had  endured  in  the 
mountains. 

Forbidding  any  attempt  to  sweep  out  the  house,  a 
proceeding  which,  advantageous  if  thoroughly  carried 
out,  only  serves  to  disturb  and  enrage  the  unseen  though 
by  no  means  unnoticeable  inhabitants  of  the  place  to  the 
detriment  of  the  traveller's  repose  if  performed  in  the 
usual  half-hearted  native  fashion,  we  caused  some 
freshly  pulled  halfa  grass  to  be  placed  upon  the  floor 
beneath  our  blankets  and  installed  ourselves  as  best 
we  could  in  our  dingy  and  restricted  surroundings.  A 
small  room,  situated  above  a  similar  one  which  was 
entered  by  a  door  upon  a  lower  level  in  the  village  street 
than  our  own,  our  new  home  was  typical  of  all  the  poorer 
Shawia  dwellings  of  the  Aures. 

Built  of  untrimmed  stones,  like  the  huts  of  Tijdad, 


140    AMONG  THE   HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

our  house  was  filled  to  overflowing  with  the  usual  medley 
of  articles  to  be  found  in  a  Shawia  hut,  and  it  was  so 
dark  that  only  after  we  had  opened  another  small  door 
in  the  wall  opposite  to  the  entrance,  could  we  obtain 
sufficient  light  to  take  stock  of  our  new  surroundings. 

The  opening  of  this  door  gave  us  a  surprise  for,  having 
approached  the  house  by  means  of  a  narrow  tortuous 
lane  between  similar  buildings,  we  had  not  realized  ex- 
actly its  position  in  the  village  ;  I  withdrew  my  head 
somewhat  quickly,  therefore,  when,  having  peered  through 
the  newly  open  door,  I  discovered  that  it  led  out  to  a 
very  narrow  and  insecure  looking  platform  of  sticks 
beyond  and  beneath  which  was — space.  The  house, 
indeed,  like  all  its  neighbours  on  the  outer  sides  of  the 
village,  was  built  upon  the  very  brink  of  the  precipice 
upon  which  Ouled  Mansour  is  situated ;  in  this  case, 
upon  the  cliff  overlooking  the  tributary  ravine  to  which 
I  have  referred,  its  outer  wall  rising  so  straight  from  the 
edge  of  the  rock  as  to  be  quite  indistinguishable  from 
it  when  seen  from  a  distance,  the  balcony,  intended  as 
a  small  platform  for  the  drying  of  fruit  and  provided 
with  no  rail  or  other  protection  for  those  who  might  care 
to  trust  their  weight  upon  it,  overhanging  the  abyss 
beneath. 

Although  not  normally  addicted  to  sleep-walking,  we 
at  once  made  a  mental  note  of  the  necessity  of  keeping 
that  door  shut  at  night,  however  stuffy  our  small  apart- 
ment  might   become  ! 

The  house  we  were  to  live  in,  then,  was  primitive 
enough  to  promise  great  opportunities  in  the  village  for 
the  study  of  Shawia  life  undisturbed  by  the  progress 
of  modern  civilization,  a  promise  amply  fulfilled  when 
We  explored  the  hamlet  and  became  acquainted  with 
its   inhabitants.     The  outer  dwellings  of  Ouled  Mansour 


LIFE   IN  A   CLIFF  VILLAGE  141 

are  built,  as  we  have  seen,  flush  with  the  edges  of  the 
cliffs,  the  apex  of  the  angle  formed  by  the  junction  of 
the  tributary  ravine  with  the  main  valley  being  occupied 
by  the  "  guelaa  "  tenanted  by  many  families  in  addition 
to  providing  store  room  for  the  crops,  its  narrow  lanes 
often  mere  tunnels  beneath  one  or  more  stories  of  apart- 
ments built  over  them  for  the  purpose  of  economy  of 
space. 

This  "  guelaa,"  approached  by  a  narrow  flight  of 
steps  culminating  in  a  tunnel  or  shaft  up  the  angle  of 
rock  from  the  main  Rassira  valley,  can  be  entered  by 
but  one  gateway  upon  the  "  land  "  side,  so  that  it  must 
have  formed  a  splendid  position  for  defence  in  the  old 
days  of  turmoil  and  strife.  Nowadays,  however,  pre- 
sumably since  the  French  have  introduced  order  into 
the  land,  a  number  of  houses,  including  our  own,  have 
been  erected  outside  the  "  guelaa  "  but  adjacent  to  it, 
while  a  few  scattered  dwellings  are  to  be  found  among 
the  gardens  in  the  valley  beneath,  some  occupied  all 
the  year  round,  others  intended  only  to  accommodate 
their  owners  in  the  seasons  when  their  crops  of  dates, 
fruit  or  corn  require  to  be  protected  from  the  nocturnal 
attentions  of  thieves. 

Just  outside  the  gate  of  the  "  guelaa '.'  a  flat  rocky 
platform,  commanding  a  magnificent  view  up  the  great 
Rassira  canon,  affords  a  place  of  meeting  to  the  village 
council,  or  "  djemaa,"  and  provides  a  convenient  spot 
in  which  the  male  inhabitants  of  the  hamlet  can  indulge 
in  their  favourite  occupation  of  dozing  idly  in  the  sun 
after  such  labour  as  they  undertake  in  the  cultivation 
of  the  narrow  strip  of  useful  soil  beside  the  river  at  the 
bottom  of  the  gorge. 

But,  if  the  men  can  find  ample  time  for  dozing  or  sleepy 
contemplation   of  the   remarkable   landscape  overlooked 


142     AMONG  THE   HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

from  Ouled  Mansour,  their  women  folk  are  scarcely  so 
fortunate.  Every  drop  of  water  used  in  the  village  has 
to  be  carried  in  goatskins  up  the  long  steep  track  and 
through  the  tunnel  from  the  bed  of  the  stream  below,  the 
women  and  girls  staggering  beneath  its  weight  as  they 
toil,  morning  and  evening,  at  this  necessary  but  literally 
heavy  task  ;  indeed  the  traveller  may  well  expect  to 
find  at  Ouled  Mansour  a  state  of  filth  such  as  he  encountered 
at  Djemora  though,  in  fact,  the  people  of  Ouled  Mansour 
are  clean  by  comparison  with  the  Ouled  Ziane,  plenti- 
fully supplied  though  the  latter  are  with  warm  water 
from  a  natural  spring  at  a  stone's  throw  from  their  doors. 

Thus  the  women  of  the  nest-like  villages  among  the 
Rassira  crags  have  a  severe  task  to  perform  before  they 
commence  their  day's  work  and  another  towards  its  close  ; 
the  rest  of  the  hours  of  daylight  being  spent  in  the  usual 
occupations  of  spinning,  weaving,  pottery  making,  dye- 
ing, dressing  skins  for  bottles,  the  washing  of  clothes 
at  the  brook,  cooking  and  grinding  the  corn  for  kuskus 
with  the  aid  of  a  twin-stone  quern.  This  latter  occupa- 
tion they  commence  at  an  unholy  hour  of  the  morning, 
as  we  have  good  reason  to  know,  for  the  activities  in  this 
respect  of  the  family  occupying  the  room  beneath  us  quite 
precluded  any  chance  of  sleep  after  the  first  streak  of 
dawn,  and  often  caused  us  to  wish  that  we  could  have 
chosen  for  our  visit  to  Ouled  Mansour  a  period  in  which 
the  sound  of  the  grinding  was  low. 

Our  arrival  in  the  village,  I  am  afraid,  rather  interrupted 
the  routine  of  household  duties  of  the  Shawia  women 
and  girls.  It  was  very  noticeable,  from  the  moment  we 
first  set  out  to  explore  the  village,  that  my  wife  aroused 
an  unusual  amount  of  interest  among  its  female 
inhabitants,  who  came  scuttling  out  of  their  houses  to 
stare  at  her,  and  even  struggled  in  their  efforts  to  obtain 


LIFE   IN  A   CLIFF  VILLAGE  143 

a  closer  view ;  indeed,  so  pressing  did  their  attentions 
become  that  I  inquired  the  reason  of  them,  learning  that, 
in  the  memory  of  the  oldest  inhabitant  (who  claimed 
to  recall  quite  clearly  incidents  of  the  arrival  of  the 
French  in  Algeria  some  eighty  or  ninety  years  ago  !  ), 
no  European  woman  had  set  foot  in  Ouled  Mansour 
and  the  neighbouring  hamlets,  so  that  the  local  Shawia 
women,  who  never  leave  their  mountain  homes,  had  not 
previously  seen  a  "  Roumiya,"  or  female  Roman,  though 
most  of  the  grown-up  men  had  had  opportunities  of 
seeing  them  during  periodical  visits  to  a  town. 

The  ladies  of  Ouled  Mansour,  therefore,  never  tired 
of  inviting  my  wife  into  their  houses  or  to  join  them  in 
their  outdoor  pursuits,  invitations  which  were  gladly 
accepted  owing  to  the  opportunities  they  offered  of 
observing  domestic  life  in  the  hills,  but  which  resulted 
in  the  consumption  of  too  many  meals  for  the  personal 
comfort  of  the  visitor.  Of  course,  the  absence  from  her 
person  and  attire  of  masses  of  jewellery  struck  the  Shawia 
as  very  remarkable,  only  a  fictitious  description  of  the 
quantity  of  earrings,  anklets,  etc.,  she  usually  wore  in 
England,  left  for  safe  keeping  at  home,  convincing  them 
that  she  was  not  cursed  with  the  meanest  of  husbands, 
indeed  I  am  not  infrequently  taken  seriously  to  task 
by  Shawia  women  with  regard  to  my  wife's  lack  of 
ornaments,  attacks  which  I  usually  parry  by  endeavouring 
to  buy  those  worn  by  my  critic,  upon  which  the  subject 
is  invariably  changed  at  once. 

The  men  of  the  village  were  just  as  delighted  to  show 
us  around  their  native  place  as  were  the  women  to  enter- 
tain and  examine  my  wife,  so  that  we  were  able  to  explore 
every  inch  of  the  village  under  the  guidance  of  various 
newly  made  friends  who  were  careful  that  we  should 
miss  nothing  which  they  considered   to   be  of  interest, 


144     AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

showing  us  upon  more  than  one  occasion  a  spur  of  rock 
projecting  over  the  valley  hundreds  of  feet  below  from 
which  a  woman  had  fallen  to  her  death  in  the  course 
of  the  previous  year. 

It  is  remarkable  how  few  of  the  sure-footed  Shawia, 
to  whom  the  dizziness  produced  by  heights  appears  to 
be  quite  unknown,  are  killed  as  a  result  of  falls  from 
their  villages  into  the  depths  beneath,  and  it  is  also 
noteworthy  that  the  majority  of  those  who  do  so  fall 
are  women,  a  fact  which  might  seem  to  suggest  that  simpler 
means  even  than  the  divorce,  so  very  easily  obtained 
under  Mohammedan  law,  have  been  discovered  by 
husbands  of  the  Aures  who  may  wish  to  rid  themselves 
of  wives  whom  the  old  age  which  overtakes  them  in  early 
middle  life  has  rendered  unattractive  and  so  no  longer 
to  be  desired. 

The  population  of  the  hamlets  of  the  Rassira  valley 
is  very  nearly  self-supporting,  the  great  majority  of 
its  simple  requirements  being  manufactured  in  the 
villages  themselves,  the  few  articles  in  daily  use 
which  cannot  be  so  supplied,  for  example  the  cotton 
stuffs  used  for  the  shirts  and  turbans  of  the  men  and 
the  dress  material  of  the  women,  soap,  antimony,  tobacco, 
matches  and  similar  odds  and  ends,  being  purchasable 
at  the  tiny  native  shops  to  be  found  in  every  settlement 
or  from  Kabyle  pedlars,  enterprising  traders  from  the 
Berber  tribes  of  the  hills  near  the  coast,  who  wander 
over  the  Aures,  their  wares  carried  upon  the  backs  of 
sturdy  little  donkeys,  spreading  as  they  go  some  items 
of  news  from  the  outside  world  among  the  Shawia,  the 
only  news,  other  than  that  brought  back  by  some  native 
who  may  wander  to  Biskra  in  the  desert  or  Batna  to  the 
north  of  the  Aures,  which  reaches  the  dwellers  in  the 
remote  fastnesses  of  the  hills. 


LIFE   IN   A   CLIFF   VILLAGE  145 

In  the  course  of  our  stay  at  Ouled  Mansour  we  became 
acquainted  with  a  number  of  interesting  natives. 

Among  them  we  discovered  a  veritable  mine  of  informa- 
tion in  the  person  of  an  elderly  man  who  combined  the 
trade  of  a  leather  worker  with  the  more  scholarly  vocation 
of  a  scribe,  so  that,  in  the  former  capacity,  he  turned  an 
honest  penny  by  the  manufacture  of  neat  little  red  leather 
cases  to  contain  the  written  charms  from  which  he 
derived  a  perhaps  less  irreproachable  income  in  the 
latter. 

Now  a  remote  village  such  as  Ouled  Mansour,  as  out 
of  touch  with  the  desert  and  the  great  towns  as  any 
settlement  of  the  Aures,  offers  an  excellent  field  of  research 
to  anyone  desirous  of  studying  Shawia  superstitions 
and  other  folk-lore;  we  accordingly  passed  many  an 
hour  in  the  tiny  workshop  of  our  friend  the  scribe,  seated 
upon  a  mat  and  consuming  cup  after  cup  of  coffee  as 
the  old  man,  encouraged  by  our  evident  interest  and 
apparent  credulity,  described  in  ever-increasing  detail 
some  of  the  mysteries  of  his  magic  art.  The  great  majority 
of  Algerian  magical  rites  and  the  various  charms  worn 
by  men,  women  and  children,  as  well  as  by  certain 
domestic  animals  both  in  the  desert  and  the  hills,  are 
designed  to  defeat  the  machinations  of  some  "  jinn," 
or  demon,  to  the  native's  belief  in  which  I  have  several 
times  alluded  in  the  course  of  these  pages,  especially 
when  describing  the  cause  and  effect  of  the  "  evil-eye  " 
and  the  protective  measures  taken  against  it  in  the  wearing 
of  certain  silver  ornaments,  among  them  the  "  hand," 
such  as  are  made  by  the  jewellers  of  Menaa,  and  to  which 
I  shall  have  to  refer  again  when  dealing  in  a  later  chapter 
with  the  main  object  of  my  researches  in  the  hills,  the 
healing  art  of  modern  native  doctors. 

These  "  jenoun,"  the  plural  of  the  word  "  jinn,"  would 

10 


146    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

be  an  intolerable  curse  to  the  existence  of  the  superstitious 
dwellers  in  the  desert  and  the  hills  were  it  not  for  the 
numerous   charms   which  they  believe  to   be   efficacious 
in  dealing  with  them,  for,  although  some  of  them  are 
considered  to  be  harmless,  the  great  majority  appear  to 
devote  their  whole  existence  to  working  mischief  in  the 
affairs  of  man.     Writers  of  charms  to  be  worn  around 
the  neck,  therefore,  like  the  marabouts  we  have  already 
discussed  and  scribes  such  as  our  leather  worker  of  Ouled 
Mansour,    are    daily    in    request    to    provide    protective 
amulets  for  those  who  go  in  dread  of  supernatural  attacks. 
The  millions  of  "  jenoun  "  which  infest  this  earth  choose 
such  varied  places  as  rivers,  manure  heaps,  empty  houses 
or  pools  of  blood  as  their  abode  ;   indeed  it  was  ludicrous 
upon  one  occasion,  when  I  severely  cut  my  thumb,  to 
notice  the  concern  of  the  owner  of  the  house  I  was  in  as 
he  saw  the  blood  spurt  upon  the  floor,  where  he  covered 
it  with  dust  as  quickly  as  it  fell  lest  it  should  attract 
some  demon  into  his  home. 

These  unpleasant  enemies  of  mankind  are  invisible 
as  a  rule,  but  are  capable  of  assuming  the  guise  of  animals, 
human  beings,  or,  indeed,  of  anything  when  engaged 
upon  their  nefarious  practices  but,  in  the  opinion  of 
most  natives  I  have  met  with,  they  cannot  readily  be 
destroyed  by  earthly  weapons. 

In  the  opinion  of  those  who  write  charms  for  a  fee, 
the  only  really  effective  amulet  for  protection  against 
"  jenoun "  consists  in  the  slip  of  paper  covered  with 
scrawling  Arabic  characters  and  often  including  some 
mystic  diagrams  in  the  shape  of  triangles  or  squares 
which,  encased  in  leather  or  cotton  material  for  a  man 
or  in  a  neat  rectangular  silver  box  for  the  use  of  a  woman, 
is  to  be  found  suspended  from  a  cord  around  the  neck 
or  from  a  brooch  upon  the  person  of  every  native  in  Algeria 


LIFE   IN  A   CLIFF  VILLAGE  147 

whom  a  veneer  of  civilization  has  not  led  to  despise  his 
old  beliefs.  The  writing  on  the  paper  is  popularly 
supposed  by  tourists  to  consist  of  a  verse  or  verses  from 
the  Koran,  indeed  many  an  Arab  or  Shawia  will  assure 
the  traveller  in  all  good  faith  that  this  is  the  case  but, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  by  no  means  true. 

Most  of  the  amulets  contain  words  from  the  writings 
of  some  early  medijeval  author  of  books  upon  magical 
subjects,  and  bear  no  resemblance  to  texts  from  the 
Koran  of  the  Arabian  prophet,  but  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  vast  majority  of  Algerian  natives  are  unable 
to  read  the  Koran  or  anything  else,  so  that  they  are  very 
ready  to  attribute  any  mystic  or  semi-sacred  writings  to 
Mohammed  himself,  into  whose  mouth  have  been  forced 
many  sayings,  invented  long  after  his  death,  to  which 
in  all  probability  he  would  never  have  given  utterance. 

Some  scribes,  indeed,  attribute  the  origin  of  written 
charms  to  a  supposed  incident  in  the  life  of  Mohammed. 

One  night,  while  wandering  in  meditation  in  the  desert 
of  Arabia,  the  prophet  became  aware  of  the  presence 
of  a  very  large,  ugly  and  generally  fearsome  looking 
dame,  who  informed  him  that  she  was  known  as  the 
"  Mother  of  the  Night  "  and  that,  assisted  by  the  whole 
body  of  "  jenoun,"  of  whom  she  claimed  to  be  the  sovereign, 
she  was  in  the  habit  of  spreading  ruin  and  death  among 
mortals  and  destroying  the  possessions  of  the  dwellers 
upon  earth.  Upon  hearing  this  startling  announcement 
the  prophet,  not  unnaturally  perhaps,  invoked  the  aid 
of  Allah,  at  the  mention  of  whose  name  the  chieftainess 
of  the  demons  displayed  signs  of  fear  and  promised 
protection  to  Mohammed  and  his  followers  who,  however, 
she  said  must  wear  some  written  words  to  act  as  a  pass- 
port by  means  of  which  her  unseen  minions  could 
recognize  them  and  so  allow  them  to  go  their  ways  unhin- 


148     AMONG  THE   HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

dered  and  unharmed.  Such  is  the  origin,  as  given  to  me 
by  certain  scribes,  of  the  wearing  of  written  amulets  in 
Algeria. 

Many  scribes,  as  well  as  marabouts,  in  addition  to 
the  writing  of  charms  make  a  considerable  addition  to 
their  incomes  by  foretelling  the  future  to  those  who 
are  about  to  undertake  some  enterprise  or  journey,  some- 
times with  an  accuracy  which  is  really  remarkable.  An 
instance  of  this  occurred  to  us  at  Ouled  Mansour. 

In  order  to  make  clear  to  my  readers  the  knowledge, 
or  rather  lack  of  knowledge,  in  the  light  of  which  the 
prophecy  was  made,  I  should  observe  that  Ouled  Mansour 
is  so  remote  and  of  so  small  consequence  in  the  affairs 
of  the  outside  world  as  to  be  quite  beyond  reach  of  foreign 
propaganda  or  intrigue  and  that,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
scribe,  England  was  situated  somewhere  in  Cairo,  for 
he  had  apparently  never  heard  of  the  little  island  in 
the  North  Sea  whose  sons,  with  those  of  France,  were 
so  soon  to  stand  between  him  and  the  yoke  of 
Teuton  rule. 

On  March  6,  1914,  my  wife  and  I  asked  the  old  man 
to  foretell  our  future.  After  putting  one  or  two  questions 
to  us  as  to  our  parents'  names,  the  days  of  the  week  on 
which  we  were  born,  etc.,  he  proceeded  to  consult  a  book, 
a  cheap  reprint  obtained  from  Tunis  of  an  old  magical 
work,  and  finally  announced  that  before  the  year  was 
out  I  should  be  serving  my  "  sultan  "  and  that  my  wife 
should  have  a  son. 

In  six  months  I  held  a  commission  in  the  Army  (in 
which  I  had  had  no  previous  service),  and  on  December 
21,  1914,  our  son  was  born  !  Coincidence,  no  doubt ; 
but  these  are  the  cold  hard  facts. 

The  practice  of  foretelling  the  future  is  by  no  means 
confined    to   the  scribes   and  marabouts,  for  sorceresses 


LIFE  IN  A   CLIFF  VILLAGE  149 

or  "  wise  women,"  such  as  the  hag  whom  we  have 
mentioned  in  an  earlier  chapter  as  being  capable  of  bringing 
down  the  moon,  are  to  be  found  all  over  the  hills  quite 
prepared  to  forecast  the  issue  of  events  upon  receipt  of 
a  small  fee.  This  they  perform  in  various  ways,  the  most 
usual  method  at  Ouled  Mansour  and  some  other  villages 
of  the  Aures  being  as  follows.  The  sorceress  places  a 
large  flat  wooden  dish  bottom  upwards  upon  the  ground 
and  draws  across  the  bottom  of  it,  so  that  they  intersect 
at  right  angles  in  the  centre,  two  lines,  one  white, 
having  been  made  with  chalk,  and  the  other  black,  of 
soot. 

She  then  hangs  a  necklet  of  beads  upon  the  hook  of 
a  spindle- whorl,  to  the  other  end  of  which  is  tied  a  small 
piece  of  string.  Placing  the  necklet  in  the  centre  of 
the  dish  at  the  point  of  intersection  of  the  two  lines, 
she  gently  raises  the  spindle-whorl  by  means  of  the  string, 
at  the  same  time  asking  the  question  to  which  an  answer 
is  desired,  until  the  necklet  is  lifted  from  the  dish  and 
can  swing  to  and  fro  above  it. 

Should  it  sway  along  the  white  line  a  favourable  or 
affirmative  answer  is  held  to  have  been  given,  while 
movement  along  the  black  line  indicates  an  unfavourable 
or  negative  reply. 

Very  obviously  the  sorceress  can  control  the  motions 
of  the  necklet  and  thus  return  what  answer  she  chooses 
to  her  client  but  the  native  is  incredibly  stupid  in  his 
superstitious  beliefs  and  seems  quite  unable  to  detect 
the  possibility  of  fraud. 

Not  only  do  the  sorceresses  of  the  Aures  practise  divina- 
tion of  the  course  of  future  events,  and,  as  we  have  seen 
in  an  earlier  chapter,  provide  magical  philtres  to  enable 
wives  to  retain  the  waning  affections  of  their  husbands, 
but  they  are  also  ready  to  set  evil  influences  to  work  to 


150    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

injure  those  who  are  unlucky  enough  to  incur  their  wrath 
or  whose  personal  enemies  enlist  the  help  of  a  magician 
to  wreak  vengeance  upon  them. 

For  example,  a  woman  who  has  failed  to  secure  the 
affections  of  some  man  upon  whom  she  has  cast  an 
amorous  eye  will,  with  the  aid  of  a  sorceress,  take  the 
fresh  liver  of  a  goat  or  sheep  and,  having  inserted  a 
number  of  pins  or  thorns  in  it,  hang  it  up  in  some  secret 
place,  such  as  a  chimney  in  the  victim's  house,  in  the 
belief  that  as  it  dries  and  shrivels  up  so  will  the  object 
of  her  jealous  anger  gradually  waste  away  and  die,  a 
practice  which  finds  many  a  parallel  in  the  customs  of 
primitive  peoples  in  widely  separated  parts  of  the  earth 
and  which  must  be  a  survival  of  the  magic  of  ages  long 
since  gone  by,  before  the  faith  of  Islam  had  spread  over 
the  Barbary  States.  The  victim  of  these  machinations, 
as  soon  as  failing  health  warns  him  that  some  secret  spell 
has  been  cast  upon  him,  betakes  himself  to  a  scribe  who 
will  pretend  to  diagnose  his  case  and  prepare  for  him 
amulets  the  wearing  of  which  is  intended  to  counteract 
the  evil  influences  which  have  been  set  to  work,  the 
resulting  magical  duel  between  the  scribe  and  the  unknown 
caster  of  the  spell  terminating,  of  course,  according  to 
the  real  nature  of  the  complaint  from  which  the  victim 
happens  by  chance  to  be  suffering,  although,  no  doubt, 
persons  who  have  reason  to  believe  that  they  are 
being  magically  assailed  may  often  work  themselves 
into  a  state  of  nervous  depression  from  which  their  blind 
faith  in  their  amulets  may  well  bring  real  relief.  A 
great  part  of  the  trade,  for  so  it  may  accurately  be  des- 
cribed, of  the  sorceresses  of  the  Aures  consists  in  the 
preparation  of  charms  usually  supplied  to  women  and 
children,  for  the  menfolk  more  often  place  their  trust  in 
the  scribes  who,  as  we  have  seen,  consider  written  amulets 


*.    i 


LIFE   IN  A   CLIFF  VILLAGE  151 

to  be  the  only  reliable  means  of  defeating  the  machina- 
tions of  "  jenoun." 

But  the  semi-human  character  of  these  demons  renders 
them  susceptible  to  influence  by  such  an  enormous  number 
of  various  charms  that  the  sorceresses  are  well  able  to 
thrive  upon  the  credulity  of  their  clients. 

A  mere  list  of  even  a  small  proportion  of  the  substances 
used  in  magic  with  which  we  have  come  into  contact 
in  such  remote  hamlets  as  Ouled  Mansour  would  occupy 
considerable  space  and  would  involve  much  technical 
discussion,  out  of  place  in  any  but  a  strictly  ethnographical 
work,  I  will  therefore  describe  in  some  detail  the  uses 
of  a  few  of  the  commonest  among  them. 

We  have  already  noted  in  describing  the  magical  uses 
of  jewellery  that  "jenoun"  are  liable  to  fear,  the  wearing, 
therefore,  of  a  charm  which  suggests  the  presence  of 
some  savage  or  dangerous  creature  is  considered  to  be 
very  efficacious  against  them,  so  that  dogs'  teeth,  the 
heads  of  vipers,  or  the  whole  bodies  of  scorpions  enclosed 
in  a  reed  are  commonly  to  be  found  in  use  for  this  purpose, 
as  are  models  of  weapons,  old  bullets,  or  packets  of  gun- 
powder which  threaten  the  "  jenoun "  with  the  death 
to  which  they  can  succumb,  and  demons  are  supposed, 
for  some  reason  which  at  present  seems  obscure,  to  dread 
iron  or  anything  made  of  it,  a  fact  which  accounts  for 
the  wearing,  especially  by  children,  of  any  scrap  of  iron 
they  can  lay  hands  on,  very  frequently  an  old  European 
key,  suspended  by  a  string  from  their  necks,  a  practice 
which  the  traveller  will  notice  at  once  in  any  village 
of  the  desert  or  the  hills  should  he  keep  his  eye  open 
for  trivial  signs  of  native  superstitions  and  beliefs. 

Substances  with  a  powerful  or  unpleasant  smell,  such 
as  asafcetida,  or  a  strong  taste,  such  as  red  pepper,  are 
considered  to  be  useful   in  keeping  away   "  jenoun "  if 


152     AMONG   THE   HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

worn  in  little  packets  of  rag  attached  to  the  costume, 
while  a  vast  selection  of  dried  plants,  one  of  the  commonest 
of  which  is  rue,  can  be  similarly  employed  owing  to  the 
demons'  supposed  aversion  to  them. 

With  all  this  medley  of  charms  to  choose  from,  a  Shawia 
mother  takes  no  risks  in  the  precautionary  measures 
she  adopts  for  her  son  and,  to  a  less  extent,  for  her  daughter ; 
obtaining  one  magical  substance  from  one  sorceress  and 
another  from  another  and  amulets  from  various  scribes, 
she  attaches  these  objects  to  a  string  worn  as  a  bandolier 
over  one  shoulder  beneath  his  cloak  by  her  little  boy, 
some  of  these  strings  containing  upwards  of  a  dozen 
charms  to  combat  the  attacks  of  demons  and  the  ravages 
of  disease  or  to  ensure  for  the  infant  success  in  whatever 
career  may  lie  before  him. 

Magic,  then,  plays  a  most  important  part  in  the  daily 
lives  of  the  Shawia  and  their  nomad  neighbours  of  the 
great  desert  and,  even  in  the  great  centres  of  modern 
civilization,  its  hold  upon  the  natives  has  by  no  means 
ceased  to  exist  as  a  result  of  contact  with  the  European 
and  his  ways  ;  it  is,  however,  a  subject  which  is  notori- 
ously difficult  to  study. 

Firstly,  the  natives  are  extremely  reticent  about  their 
superstitions  until  the  traveller  has  gained  their  con- 
fidence, itself  a  difficult  task  ;  and,  secondly,  although 
they  know  well  the  uses  of  their  various  charms,  very 
few  of  them  are  able  to  offer  any  reason  for  their  employ- 
ment which  would  afford  the  student  some  clue  to  their 
origin  or  insight  into  the  principles  underlying  their 
use,  a  fact  which  is  scarcely  to  be  wondered  at  if  we 
consider  for  a  moment  how  many  of  our  English  friends, 
who  will  not  walk  under  a  ladder,  could  explain  the 
reason  of  their  reluctance  to  do  so,  the  custom  persisting 
long  after  its  origin  has  been  generally  forgotten. 


LIFE  IN  A  CLIFF  VILLAGE  153 

Life  at  Ouled  Mansour,  in  the  very  heart  of  the  land  of 
the  Shawia,  proved  interesting  enough,  and  the  days  passed 
quickly  for  us,  busy  as  we  were,  from  morning  until  night, 
investigating  the  customs  of  its  inhabitants,  an  occupa- 
tion by  the  way,  which  must  not  be  indulged  in  too 
obviously  for  fear  of  arousing  the  suspicions  of  the  people, 
who  cannot  be  expected  to  understand  the  real  object 
of  the  wanderer's  inquiries,  and  are  accordingly  apt  to 
regard  the  inquisitive  observer  as  a  spy  who  may  report 
their  various  little  infractions  of  the  letter  of  the  French 
law  to  authorities  who,  in  the  normal  course  of  events, 
know  well  the  wisdom  of  occasionally  shutting  their  eyes. 

Residing  in  the  cottage  we  had  hired,  and  partaking 
of  stews  of  chicken  or  goat  prepared  for  us  by  a  Shawia 
woman,  whose  services  as  cook  we  had  enlisted,  supple- 
mented by  a  few  European  stores  we  had  brought  with  us, 
we  were  by  no  means  so  uncomfortable  as  our  first  glance 
at  our  surroundings  had  led  us  to  anticipate  that  we 
should  be,  but,  nevertheless,  a  stay  in  such  a  hamlet 
is  not  to  be  recommended  to  any  one  unprepared  to 
dispense  with  all  the  creature  comforts  he  can  enjoy  at 
an  inn  and  to  take  life  in  the  hills  as  he  finds  it. 

Although  the  climate  of  the  Rassira  valley  is  delightfully 
sunny  and  dry,  the  elevated  position  of  the  villages  upon 
the  brink  of  its  mighty  cliffs  renders  warm  clothing  a 
necessity  even  so  late  in  the  year  as  March,  for  sometimes 
the  north  wind  blows  keenly  from  the  snow-clad  peaks 
of  the  higher  Aures  and  the  nights  are  often  remarkably 
cold,  though,  should  the  wanderer  chance  to  be  lodged 
in  a  hut  among  the  date  groves  which  fringe  the  stream 
at  the  bottom  of  the  great  ravine  sheltered  from  the 
mountain  winds,  he  would  probably  find  the  temperature 
several  degrees  higher  than  in  the  lofty  villages  themselves. 

Indeed,  warm  clothing  and  a  good  supply  of  blankets 


154    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

are  always  necessary  in  the  Aures  since  fires,  except 
perhaps  a  few  glowing  embers  in  an  earthen  bowl,  can 
rarely  be  indulged  in  Shawia  houses  for,  in  the  absence 
of  any  fireplace,  other  than  three  stones  upon  which 
to  stand  the  stew-pot  beneath  a  minute  opening  in  the 
roof,  the  building  soon  becomes  filled  with  the  heavy 
smoke  of  burning  juniper  which,  pleasant  enough  to 
the  nostrils  when  smelled  from  afar,  would  soon  make 
the  place  unbearable  to  a  European. 

We  were  able  at  Ouled  Mansour  to  collect  a  fair  number 
of  objects  for  the  museum  at  Oxford,  some  of  which  we 
had  not  noticed  in  other  parts  of  the  hills,  such  as  a  type 
of  powder-flask  which  provides  one  of  the  few  examples 
of  wood-carving  of  any  merit  whatsoever  that  we  have 
met  with  in  our  rambles  in  the  mountains,  for  decorative 
art,  other  than  the  ornamentation  of  rugs,  mats,  and 
cushions,  the  barbaric  patterns  of  the  Shawia  silver 
trinkets  and  the  very  rudimentary  designs  upon  some 
of  their  pottery,  is  conspicuous  by  its  absence  in  the 
homes  of  the  ancient  Berber  race  upon  the  edge  of  the 
desert,  though  their  Kabyle  cousins  of  the  north  display 
a  rather  more  artistic  spirit  in  this  respect. 

A  comparative  study  of  the  patterns  used  in  art  in  the 
hills,  when  a  sufficient  number  of  them  are  available 
for  the  purpose,  should  prove  extremely  interesting, 
for  those  of  the  silver  ornaments  appear,  at  first  glance, 
to  bear  no  relation  to  the  patterns  on  the  rugs  and  cushions 
which  latter  differ  from  the  designs  displayed  upon  the 
powder  flasks,  while  the  more  primitive  ornamentation 
of  the  pottery  seems  to  fall  into  a  different  category  to 
all  three. 

No  doubt  this  is  attributable  to  the  different  periods 
at  which  the  designs  have  crept  into  the  Aures  from 
without,  but  a  systematic  examination  of  many  patterns 


LIFE   IN  A   CLIFF  VILLAGE  155 

must  be  undertaken  before  any  opinion  of  value  can 
be  hazarded  as  to  when  these  periods  were  and  whence 
the  decorative  art  of  the  Shawia  in  its  various  stages 
has  originated. 

The  usual  arts  and  crafts  of  the  Aures,  the  spinning, 
weaving,  pottery  making  and  other  occupations,  such 
as  we  have  noted  in  preceding  chapters  from  other  parts 
of  the  massif,  are  to  be  found  carried  on  at  Ouled  Mansour 
in  the  same  manner  as  in  the  villages  of  the  Wed  Abdi 
and  those  of  the  other  valleys  we  have  visited,  and  they 
can  readily  enough  be  studied  owing  to  the  friendly  char- 
acter of  the  native. 

We  found,  therefore,  that  we  had  increased  our  ac- 
quaintance with  many  phases  of  Shawia  life  when  the 
time  arrived  for  us  to  leave  the  little  hamlet  overlooking 
the  great  Rassira  canon  and  turn  our  steps  towards  the 
higher  lying  valley  of  the  Wed  el  Abiod  to  the  north. 

Scrambling  through  the  shaft  and  down  the  precipi- 
tous rocky  knife-edge  by  which  we  had  first  reached  the 
village,  we  joined  our  mules  beside  the  stream  and,  having 
gained  the  opposite  lip  of  the  canon  overhanging  the 
date  groves  and  the  river,  we  rode  slowly  along  the  cliff 
edge  enjoying  magnificent  views  of  the  wide  valley  through 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  the  canon  runs,  the  great  gorge 
itself  lying  at  our  feet  as  we  wended  our  way  towards 
the  village  of  Ghoufi  upon  the  opposite  side  of  the  canon 
to  that  upon  which  stands  the  hamlet  of  Ouled  Mansour. 
All  the  time  numerous  small  settlements  of  the  Shawia, 
built  upon  the  very  brink  of  the  chasm,  were  in  sight 
as  we  moved,  their  gardens  and  date  groves  forming 
a  continuous  belt  of  green  beside  the  river  some  hundreds 
of  feet  below  us,  for  the  villages  of  the  Rassira  appear 
to  be  as  numerous  as  those  of  the  Wed  Abdi  though 
somewhat  smaller  in  size. 


156     AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

After  passing  a  small  mosque,  lying  by  itself  in  the 
open  country  beside  the  track  and  boasting  no  minaret 
from  which  the  faithful  could  be  called  to  prayer,  we 
came  upon  a  lonely  terebinth  tree  believed  by  the  natives 
to  be  possessed  of  "  baraka "  or  holiness,  its  branches 
covered  with  the  rags  with  which  passers-by  had  adorned 
it  in  the  hope  that  some  of  this  holiness  might  safe- 
guard them  upon  their  journey,  a  typical  example  of 
the  "  marabout  trees  "  to  which  we  have  alluded  before, 
and,  continuing  our  way,  pulled  up  at  Ghoufi  to  partake 
of  a  meal  and  wander  round  the  village  before  riding 
on  to  Tifefel,  our  destination,  to  the  north  of  the 
Rassira  canon. 

Since  our  visit  to  the  central  valleys  of  the  Aures  a 
bordj,  similar  to  those  at  Djemora  and  Menaa,  has  been 
erected  by  the  French  at  Ghoufi  to  accommodate  officials 
and  those  who  care  to  wander  through  this  part  of  the 
massif,  so  that  the  traveller  can  stay  in  comfort  in  the 
Rassira  valley  without  being  compelled  to  hire  a  native 
hut  such  as  we  had  inhabited  at  Ouled  Man  sour,  and 
he  will  find  Ghoufi  itself  extremely  interesting  as  a  typical 
Berber  settlement  of  the  district. 

Built  like  the  neighbouring  hamlets  upon  the  edge 
of  the  ravine,  its  "  guelaa  "  entered  by  but  one  gateway, 
consisting  of  a  mass  of  tiny  dwellings  and  store-houses 
for  the  protection  of  its  crops,  their  upper  floors  reached 
as  at  Baniane  by  the  most  insecure  looking  ladders, 
bridges  and  balconies  of  untrimmed  logs,  the  village 
will  afford  the  traveller  who  stays  at  its  "  bordj  "  an 
excellent  example  of  the  villages  of  the  Rassira  and, 
no  doubt,  its  natives  will  be  found  to  be  as  primitive 
and  as  hospitable  as  their  neighbours  with  whom  we 
stayed  ;  in  addition  to  which  its  proximity  to  numerous 
other   hamlets,    which   can   readily   be   examined   in   the 


LIFE   IN  A   CLIFF   VILLAGE  157 

course  of  a  day's  ramble,  would  seem  to  render  Ghoufi 
a  remarkably  convenient  centre  from  which  to  explore 
the  country  round  so  that,  when  a  roadway  suitable  to 
cars  runs  down  beside  the  edge  of  the  great  canon  from 
the  northern  part  of  the  Aures  to  the  Sahara  at  Mechounech, 
it  will  probably  become  a  halting-place  for  the  tourist, 
and  the  Shawia  women  of  the  area  will  soon  cease  to 
gaze  with  wonder  upon  one  of  their  European  sisters,  as 
they  were  so  eager  to  do  at  the  time  of  our  visit  to  their 
country  in  the  spring  of  1914. 

As  we  had  moved  up  to  Ghoufi  from  Ouled  Mansour, 
the  canon  had  gradually  decreased  in  depth  so  that, 
beautiful  as  were  its  glowing  cliffs  and  its  gardens,  the 
deep  green  of  which  was  now  increasingly  relieved  by 
the  admixture  of  numerous  fruit  trees  in  their  spring 
dress  of  blossom,  it  was  scarcely  so  impressive  in  its  wild 
almost  forbidding  grandeur  as  at  the  village  we  had  just 
left  behind  us,  and,  continuing  our  journey  along  its 
western  edge,  we  found  that  this  decrease  in  depth  became 
more  and  more  noticeable  and  the  number  of  fruit  trees 
greater  and  greater  until,  after  we  had  descended  into 
the  bed  of  the  stream  itself  and  ridden  some  distance 
along  its  course  in  the  water,  the  canon  became  nothing 
more  remarkable  than  a  shallow  though  beautiful  gorge, 
upon  emerging  from  which  we  entered  a  wide  basin  at 
its  northern  end,  through  which  the  Rassira  River  mean- 
dered after  passing  through  a  narrow  cleft  in  the 
mountains  from  the  Wed  el  Abiod  some  miles  to  the 
north. 

This,  then,  was  the  end  of  the  great  canon  of  the  Rassira 
beneath  the  shadow  of  the  glowing  rocks  of  the  Red 
Cheeked  mountain,  a  gorge  more  extraordinary  in  its 
grandeur  and  wild  beauty  throughout  its  fifteen  miles 
of  length  than  any  ravine  to  be  found  in  those  parts 


158    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

of  the  French  North  African  dependencies  with  which 
I  have  become  acquainted  in  my  wanderings,  and  yet 
a  district  of  which  so  few  European  visitors  to  Algeria 
have  so  much  as  heard  the  name  ;  a  land  in  which  the 
tourist  is  unknown. 


CHAPTER    VIII 
IN    THE    HEART    OF    THE    AURES 

THE  UPPER  RASSIBA  BASIN — A  CONNECTING  LINK  BETWEEN  AFRICA  AND 
EUROPE — AGRICULTURE  IN  THE  AURES — CEREMONY  AT  THE  COM- 
MENCEMENT   OF    PLOUGHING THE    SHAwfA    PLOUGH — THRESHING 

THE     HARVEST     FESTIVAL SCALES VENDETTAS DYEING THE 

GOVERNMENT  STATION   AT  TKOUT — A    "  SUN-DIAL  " THE   GORGE   OF 

TIGHANIMINE — A   MILITARY   EPISODE — THE    HAMLET    OF   TAGHOUT — 
OVER  THE   HEIGHTS   TO   TIMGAD. 

WHEN  we  emerged  from  the  Rassira  canon  in  our 
leisurely  journey  northward  through  the  Aures  we 
had  by  no  means  reached  the  higher  central  portion  of  the 
massif,  for  the  wide  basin,  to  which  I  have  referred,  lying 
at  the  foot  of  an  amphitheatre  of  rocky  hills,  had  to  be 
crossed  before  we  could  enter  the  one  cleft  in  the  sheer 
wall  of  the  Djebel  Zellatou,  known  as  the  gorge  of  Tighani- 
mine,  through  which  the  stream  of  the  Wed  el  Abiod, 
or  White  River,  flows  down  from  the  valley  which  bears 
its  name  to  become  the  Rassira  River  whose  course  we 
had  ascended,  which  valley  of  the  Wed  el  Abiod  we  must 
traverse  for  the  greater  part  of  its  length  before  arriving 
at  the  snow-capped  mountain  Ichemoul,  one  of  the 
highest  peaks  of  the  massif,  whence  we  could  proceed 
to  the  real  highlands  of  the  Aures  overlooking  the  plateau 
to  the  north.  The  journey  from  the  Rassira  gorge  across 
the  basin  to  the  Wed  el  Abiod  resembles  in  some  degree 
the  remarkable  passage  from  Djemora  to  Menaa,  the 
rapid  transition  from  Africa  to  Europe  which  we  noted 
in  a  previous  chapter ;    for,  leaving  behind  him  typical 

159 


160    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

North  African  scenery  and  foliage  as  he  emerges  from 
the  date  groves  of  the  mighty  canon,  the  traveller  finds 
himself  in  the  corn  fields  of  the  basin  mentioned  above, 
where  a  mixture  of  scattered  palms  and  fruit  trees  causes 
the  country  to  resemble  a  sort  of  hinterland  between 
the  Africa  he  has  just  left  behind  him  and  the  southern 
European  scenery,  grey  rocks  and  stunted  evergreen 
trees,  which  he  will  discover  to  be  characteristic  of  the 
valley  of  the  Wed  el  Abiod  so  very  few  miles  to  the  north. 

In  the  midst  of  this  basin — this  connecting  link,  as 
it  were,  between  the  scenery  of  two  continents — lies  the 
little  village  of  Tifelfel,  our  destination  in  our  journey 
from  Ouled  Mansour,  surrounded  when  we  approached 
it  by  numerous  fruit  trees  clothed  in  blossom  and  wide 
green  fields  of  rising  corn. 

Dismounting  at  the  residence  of  a  sheikh,  who  adminis- 
tered the  district  under  the  great  Kai'd  Bou  Hafs,  a 
building  situated  amid  a  number  of  scattered  huts  a 
hundred  yards  or  more  from  the  massive  "  guelaa  "  of 
the  village  which,  with  the  gleaming  white  minaret  of 
a  mosque,  had  been  visible  for  some  time  as  we  neared 
the  place,  we  were  made  very  welcome  by  our  new  host 
and  provided  with  a  large  apartment,  a  dais  at  one  end 
of  which  was  to  serve  us  as  a  sleeping  place,  while  a 
European  table  and  some  chairs  at  the  opposite  end 
showed  us  that  we  were  not  to  lack  opportunity  of  eating 
and  writing  in  a  state  of  comparative  comfort  such  as 
we  had  not  enjoyed  for  some  time  past. 

While  the  village  of  Tifelfel  is  by  no  means  so  picturesque 
in  its  construction  and  surrounding  scenery  as  the  nest- 
like hamlets  upon  the  Rassira  crags  it,  nevertheless, 
afforded  us,  during  the  days  we  stayed  with  its  hospitable 
sheikh,  an  opportunity  of  seeing  something  of  the  methods 
of  Shawia  agriculture  in  the  carefully  tilled  land  around. 


IN  THE  HEART   OF  THE  AURfiS  161 

These  methods  may  be  taken  as  typical  of  those  em- 
ployed throughout  the  whole  of  the  massif.  In  a  land 
such  as  Algeria,  in  which  superstition  is  so  rife  and  so 
great  importance  is  attached  to  mystic  ceremony  and 
rite,  it  is  scarcely  surprising  that  the  ploughing  of  the 
soil  to  receive  the  seed,  upon  the  fruitfulness  of  which 
the  very  life  of  the  community  depends,  should  be  made 
the  occasion  of  some  magical  formality,  the  object  of 
which  is  to  ensure  a  plenteous  harvest  such  as  may  banish 
the  ever  threatening  spectre  of  famine  for  a  season  from 
a  country  in  which  drought,  and  its  attendant  misery 
and  want,  all  too  frequently  afflict  the  dwellers  in  its 
arid  wastes  and  sun-scorched  barren  hills.  When  the 
season  for  ploughing  approaches,  a  season  naturally 
varying  according  to  the  district  but  which  in  the  greater 
part  of  the  area  we  are  considering  may  be  taken  as 
October,  the  inhabitants  of  the  Shawia  village  have  to 
decide  which  member  of  the  community  shall  first  put 
his  hand  to  the  plough,  for  it  is  necessary  that  the  first 
person  to  commence  the  work  should  be  a  member  of 
some  old,  well-known  and  respected  family  who  may 
be  considered  likely  to  bring  luck  to  the  operations  of 
the  community  as  a  whole. 

Such  a  person  having  been  chosen,  his  family  proceeds 
to  prepare  a  toothsome  dish  of  semolina,  butter,  honey 
and  sugar,  known  in  the  Shawia  dialect  as  "  ademine," 
such  as  is  usually  offered  to  guests  at  wedding  ceremonies 
both  in  the  desert  and  the  hills,  and  fills  a  bag  with  a 
number  of  assorted  fruits,  including  a  melon  or  pumpkin, 
and  bread. 

Upon  the  day  appointed  for  the  commencement  of 
the  work  the  iron  "  share  "  which  is  fitted  to  the  primitive 
plough  of  the  Aures,  is  solemnly  dipped  in  butter,  after 
which  the  sacks  of  seed  are  placed  upon  a  mule,  the 

11 


162    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

plough  and  harness  upon  another,  and  the  menfolk  of 
the  family  start  forth  to  their  field,  in  very  barren  districts 
nothing  but  a  patch  of  dry  soil  indistinguishable  from 
the  desert  around  it  and  marked  out  by  no  visible  boun- 
daries, though  its  position  and  proportions  are  equally 
well  known  to  the  natives. 

The  little  party  is  followed  by  a  female  member  of 
the  family,  attired  in  her  very  best  garments  and  bedecked 
with  all  the  glittering  mass  of  silver  ornaments  she  can 
lay  her  hands  on,  bearing  with  her  the  dish  of  "  ademine  '* 
and  the  bag  of  fruits  and  bread. 

Arrived  at  the  field  the  mules  are  relieved  of  their 
burden  and  harnessed  to  the  plough,  after  which 
the  pumpkin  or  melon  carried  in  the  bag  is  solemnly 
transfixed  upon  the  ploughshares,  from  which  it 
is  immediately  removed  again,  "  in  order,"  as  my 
Berber  friends  informed  me,  "  that  the  harvest  may 
be  good." 

This  done,  all  members  of  the  family  present,  and  all 
passers-by  who  happen  to  be  within  call,  partake  of  a 
spoonful  of  the  sweet  dish  of  "  ademine,"  after  which, 
preceded  by  a  brief  prayer  to  Allah  for  the  blessing  of 
a  fruitful  year,  the  work  of  ploughing  and  sowing  is 
commenced.  The  gaily  dressed  woman  of  the  party  then 
returns  home,  carrying  with  her  the  dish  of  "  ademine," 
of  which  she  oilers  a  spoonful  to  any  one  whom  she  may 
meet  upon  the  way. 

Such  in  brief  is  the  ceremony  which  marks  the  com- 
mencement of  ploughing  in  the  hills. 

The  plough  itself,  a  primitive  locally  made  implement, 
will  be  found  on  examination  to  be  very  little  advanced 
from  the  adze-like  hoe  from  which  it  has  been  evolved, 
for  it  consists  merely  of  a  forked  branch  of  a  tree  to  the 
lower,  and  shorter,  arm  of  which  the  share  is  socketed, 


IN  THE  HEART   OF  THE  AUR&S  163 

mules  harnessed  to  the  end  of  the  longer  arm  drawing 
the  implement  which  is  steered  by  means  of  a  flimsy 
vertical  handle  at  the  junction  of  the  two  arms. 

At  the  time  of  the  harvest  the  young  and  old  of  both 
sexes  in  the  mountains  turn  out  to  reap  and  carry. 

The  corn,  cut  by  means  of  small  sickle  hooks  of 
native  make,  is  conveyed  from  the  field  to  the  threshing- 
floor  in  nets  slung  across  the  backs  of  mules  if  the  inter- 
vening distance  be  considerable,  or  by  that  scarcely  less 
enduring  beast  of  burden,  woman,  if  the  way  be  short, 
the  willing  carrier  of  the  season's  crop  uttering  the 
while  the  long-drawn  quivering  cry  which  we  have  already 
found  to  be  so  freely  uttered  as  a  sign  of  rejoicing  by 
the  women  at  weddings  in  the  hills. 

Threshing  is  carried  out  by  means  of  a  line  of  mules 
which  tread  the  corn  beneath  their  feet  as  they  wend 
their  way  round  and  round  a  vertical  post  set  up  in 
the  centre  of  the  threshing-floor  ;  the  floor  itself  consisting 
either  of  a  level  slab  of  natural  rock  or  of  an  artificially 
prepared  surface  of  trimmed  or  untrimmed  stone. 

The  conclusion  of  the  harvest  is  marked  by  a  feast 
in  the  village  to  which  the  inhabitants  subscribe  according 
to  their  means,  the  natives  partaking  of  kuskus  and 
meat,  and  witnessing  the  usual  ungraceful  dances  per- 
formed by  unmarried  girls  or,  in  areas  in  which  their 
services  can  be  obtained,  of  professional  dancers  whose 
antics  we  have  already  described,  the  women  of  the 
community  attending  the  festival  attired  in  their  best 
to  greet  with  cries  of  joy  the  dancing  of  each  performer 
as  she  moves  to  and  fro  to  the  strains  of  the  oboe  and 
the  drum. 

The  fruits  of  the  apricot  trees,  so  common  in  the  hills, 
are  dried  and  preserved  for  use  during  the  following 
unfruitful    period    of   the   year,    being   often    consumed 


164    AMONG   THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

cooked  in  stews  of  meat — a  dish  by  no  means  to  be 
despised  if  cleanly  and  carefully  prepared — while  in  regions 
too  high  above  sea-level,  and  so  too  cold  for  the  cultiva- 
tion of  dates,  the  place  of  this  staple  food  of  the  desert 
is  taken  to  some  extent  by  the  produce  of  the  very 
numerous  fig  trees  to  be  found  in  the  gardens  of  the 
higher  villages  of  the  hills,  though  the  Shawia  who  cannot 
grow  dates  for  themselves  usually  obtain  a  supply  of 
them  by  purchase  or  by  barter,  travelling  to  the  northern 
oases  of  the  desert  to  exchange  a  given  weight  of  some 
such  garden  produce  as,  let  us  say,  turnips  against  an 
agreed  quantity  of  dates.  The  scales  used  in  these 
transactions  are  very  primitive. 

Two  halfa-grass  baskets  of  equal  weight  are  suspended 
by  cords  one  from  each  end  of  a  straight  bar  of  wood, 
itself  suspended  by  a  joint  at  its  centre  from  a  wooden 
handle  so  that,  when  the  scales  are  held  up  by  means 
of  this  handle,  either  basket  can  dip  down  as  weight 
is  thrown  into  it,  the  Arab  date  owner  and  the 
itinerant  Berber  purveyor  of  turnips,  suspicious  enough 
of  each  other  as  representative  of  more  or  less  antagon- 
istic races,  watching  one  another  meantime  with  eagle 
eye,  as  turnip  by  turnip  or  handful  by  handful  the  pro- 
duce is  placed  upon  the  scales. 

Among  peoples  of  avaricious  character,  whose  tempers 
arc  short  and  whose  love  of  sharp  practice  over  a  bargain 
can  be  likened  only  to  that  of  the  proverbial  "  horse 
coper,"  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  these  deals 
occasionally  lead  to  disputes,  in  the  course  of  which  a 
knife,  drawn  in  the  heat  of  the  argument,  inflicts  a  fatal 
wound  and  so  inaugurates  one  of  those  vendettas  which 
modern  law  and  order  have  not  yet  succeeded  in 
suppressing  in  Algeria. 

The  village  of  Tifelfel,  its  scattered  huts  lying  in  the 


IN  THE   HEART   OF  THE   AURfiS  165 

vicinity  of  its  "  guelaa,"  appears  to  be  typical  of  the 
Shawfa  settlements  of  the  neighbourhood,  of  which  we 
visited  a  number  during  our  stay  with  its  hospitable 
sheikh. 

The  "  guelaa  "  itself  resembled  those  already  described, 
but  its  outlying  dwellings  were  curious  for,  built  half 
embedded  in  little  hillocks,  we  often  found  ourselves, 
when  descending  such  a  hillock,  standing  upon  the  roof 
of  a  house  the  existence  of  which  we  had  not  noticed, 
the  dry  mud  covering  its  flat  roof  being  exactly  the  same 
colour  as  the  surrounding  soil  from  which,  indeed,  it 
had  been  obtained. 

The  houses,  too,  not  huddled  together  in  the  confined 
space  of  the  surface  of  a  rocky  spur,  were  larger  than 
those  of  the  Rassira  hamlets  and  frequently  boasted  a 
courtyard. 

Such  time  as  was  not  spent  in  wandering  about  the 
village  and  its  fields  we  occupied  in  watching  the  sheikh's 
family  at  their  daily  tasks  ;  for  he,  a  Berber,  allowed  us 
free  access  to  his  home  and  the  quarters  of  his  women 
folk. 

Upon  one  occasion  we  found  them  engaged  in  dyeing 
a  pair  of  knitted  woollen  leggings,  much  worn  by  the 
mountaineers  of  many  nations  and  made  by  the  Shawia 
themselves. 

A  mixture  of  a  certain  earth,  black  goats'  hair,  butter, 
mutton  fat  and  dripping  was  set  on  fire  in  a  bowl,  the 
smoke  arising  therefrom  nearly  suffocating  us  as  we 
stood  by,  after  which  it  was  extinguished  and,  some 
water  containing  pomegranate  skin  having  been  mixed 
with  it,  it  was  set  upon  the  hearth  to  boil,  when  the  white 
woollen  leggings  were  placed  in  it  and  boiled  for  a  few 
minutes,  after  which  they  were  removed,  dyed  black  as 
soot,  to  be  hung  up  to  dry  in  the  sun. 


166    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

As  I  have  already  pointed  out,  imported  dyes  are  very 
rapidly  rinding  their  way  into  the  Aures  to  the  detriment 
of  the  native-made  carpets,  pillows  etc.,  and  to  the 
destruction  of  an  ancient  Shawia  art,  but  the  ladies  of  the 
sheikh's  household  at  Tifelfel  preferred  the  use  of  the 
old-fashioned  home-made  article  for  the  red,  black, 
green  or  yellow  colouring  of  their  wool,  dyes  which, 
with  the  exception  of  the  black,  they  obtained  from 
local  herbs,  to  the  less  laborious  task  of  dyeing  their  wool, 
by  means  of  imported  European  powders ;  my  wife 
was  able,  therefore,  to  glean  quite  a  fund  of  information 
relating  to  an  art  which  is  fast  vanishing  from  even  the 
remoter  villages  of  the  Aures. 

When  we  moved  on  from  Tifelfel  our  destination 
was  of  a  very  different  character  from  the  squalid 
hamlets  we  had  recently  been  examining,  for  we  were 
to  pay  a  visit  to  the  government  station  of  Tkout,  a 
few  miles  to  the  north,  in  which  a  single  European 
family,  that  of  the  Assistant  Administrator  who  had 
met  us  at  Mechounech,  endured  banishment  from  all 
the  amenities  of  modern  culture  in  the  cause  of  law, 
order  and  civilization,  leading  a  life  of  absolute  isolation 
amid  a  people  still  in  a  state  of  barbarity  which  must 
have  rendered  the  existence  of  a  French  family  mono- 
tonous in  the  extreme. 

Here,  enjoying  the  boundless  hospitality  of  our  genial 
hosts,  we  soon  began  to  realize  that  circumstances  of 
which  we  had  tried  to  make  the  best  in  the  hills  had 
been  none  too  comfortable  for  us  in  the  past  months  ; 
but  the  fleas  of  Baniane,  the  cold  and  draughty  nights 
spent  upon  the  floor  at  Ouled  Mansour,  the  hundred 
and  one  little  inconveniences  of  mountain  travel  merely 
served  to  increase  our  enjoyment  of  the  luxury  which 
surrounded  us  in  the  defensible  "  bordj  "  of  Tkout. 


IN  THE  HEART   OF  THE   AURfiS  167 

We  attempted  no  serious  study  of  native  life  during 
our  stay  at  Tkout,  partly  because  we  were  only  too  glad 
to  enjoy  a  brief  period  of  rest  in  the  society  of  our 
European  friends  and  partly,  too,  because  I  do  not  con- 
sider a  centre  of  the  French  Administration,  however 
small,  to  be  a  suitable  spot  in  which  to  carry  on  researches 
into  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  Arab  or  Shawia. 
The  secretive  side  of  the  native's  character  becomes  very 
much  accentuated  when  he  is  afraid  that  tales  of  his 
habits  may  be  carried  to  and  fro,  and  many  of  his 
customs  cannot  be  expected  to  find  favour  with  the 
officers  who  rule  over  him ;  it  is  hopeless,  therefore, 
for  the  traveller  to  endeavour  to  obtain  reliable  informa- 
tion while  living  as  the  guest  of  an  official.  In  addition 
to  this  a  detachment  of  cavalry,  recruited  from  all  over 
the  country,  which  had  recently  been  removed  from  the 
"  bordj  "  had  doubtless  left  its  mark  upon  the  customs  of 
the  natives  of  Tkout  who,  from  our  point  of  view,  could 
scarcely  be  considered  fair  specimens  of  the  Berber  race 
to  which  in  reality  they  belong.  One  interesting  custom 
we  noted,  however,  during  our  stay  at  the  "  bordj," 
namely  a  system  of  measuring  time. 

It  has  scarcely  been  necessary  to  state  that  the  more 
or  less  fertile  basin  in  which  Tifelfel  and  Tkout  are 
situated  owes  its  fertility  to  the  same  system  of  irriga- 
tion which  is  to  be  found  all  over  the  Aures,  namely  the 
canal  or  "  seggia  "  system  formed  by  placing  barrages 
in  the  stream  which  flows  through  the  district,  a  system 
employed  in  the  days  of  the  Roman  empire. 

We  have  noted  at  Beni  Ferah  that  the  flow  of  water 
into  the  various  "  seggias "  is  regulated  by  means  of 
a  "  water  clock,"  or  sinking  bowl,  but  at  Tkout  another 
method  obtains  of  apportioning  to  the  various  "  seggias  " 
the   hours   of  water   supply  to   which   each   is   entitled. 


168     AMONG   THE   HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

A  post  set  up  in  a  little  open  space  in  the  village  is 
carefully  watched  over  by  a  native  specially  appointed 
for  the  purpose  who,  as  the  shadow  of  this  post,  beneath 
an  almost  always  cloudless  sky,  moves  slowly  round 
from  one  known  point  to  another  upon  a  neighbouring 
building  or  rock,  cries  out  to  those  who  are  waiting  to 
stem  the  flow  of  water  into  one  "  seggia  "  and  turn  it 
into  the  next  when  the  shadow  indicates  that  the  moment 
has  arrived  for  the  stream  to  be  deflected. 

This  very  primitive  sun-dial  appears  to  satisfy  the 
native's  requirements  as  completely  as  the  "  water  clock  " 
we  have  already  described. 

The  Kaid,  Bou  Hafs,  was  absent  during  our  stay  at 
Tkout,  but  we  visited  his  house  in  the  company  of  the 
Administrator  and  were  received  there  by  his  son. 

The  house  itself,  the  residence  of  so  progressive  a  chief, 
contained  rooms  furnished  in  a  European  fashion  for 
the  reception  of  honoured  guests  and  equipped  with 
every  regard  to  luxury  which  had  occurred  to  its 
wealthy  owner,  while  upon  its  walls  were  displayed 
some  of  the  finest  specimens  of  native  firearms  I  have 
ever  seen,  their  barrels  a  mass  of  silver  inlay  and  their 
stocks  encrusted  with  ivory,  coral,  and  mother  o'  pearl. 

Bou  Hafs'  son  invited  us  to  a  meal  which,  it  was 
decided,  should  take  the  form  of  a  farewell  lunch  to 
be  given  near  the  gorge  of  Tighanimine  upon  the  day 
of  our  departure  for  the  north. 

When  that  day  arrived,  therefore,  the  day  upon  which 
we  were  to  exchange  the  comforts  of  Tkout  for  the 
squalor  of  the  hamlets  of  the  Wed  el  Abiod,  we  rode 
out  from  the  "  bordj  "  accompanied  by  the  Administrator, 
his  wife,  and  one  of  his  two  small  daughters,  escorted 
by  three  or  four  mounted  orderlies,  in  their  uniform 
burnouses  of  blue  trimmed  with  scarlet  braid,  and,  after 


IN   THE   HEART   OF  THE   AUR&S  169 

retracing  our  steps  nearly  half-way  to  Tifelfel,  turned 
westwards  to  meet  our  host  at  the  southern  entrance 
to  the  cleft  in  the  great  rocky  wall  of  Zellatou,  through 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  the  White  River  flows  from 
the  upper  Aures  to  become  the  Rassira  where  it  enters 
the  great  canon  to  the  south. 

Here  we  found  a  most  sumptuous  repast  prepared 
for  us  by  a  small  army  of  the  Kai'd's  followers. 

Tents  had  been  pitched,  a  "  mechwi "  was  being 
slowly  turned  upon  its  spit,  and  every  indication  was 
apparent  that  a  royal  send-off  into  the  mountains  was 
to  fall  to  our  lot. 

Such,  indeed,  turned  out  to  be  the  case,  so  that  it 
was  after  a  very  sumptuous  banquet  indeed  that  we 
turned  our  steps  towards  the  gorge  in  which  our  hosts 
were  to  leave  us  to  pursue  our  journey  to  the  hamlet 
at  which  we  were  to  continue  our  work  among  the 
natives. 

The  gorge  of  Tighanimine,  deeper  and  more  forbidding 
in  appearance  than  that  of  El  Kantara,  may  in  some 
respects  be  compared  to  the  latter  in  that  it  forms  a 
gateway  between  the  European  scenery  of  the  higher 
Aures  valleys  and  the  African  country  of  the  Rassira 
canon,  though  the  impression  of  a  sudden  passage  from 
one  continent  to  another  is  scarcely  so  vivid  as  at  the 
"  Mouth  of  the  Desert,"  owing  to  the  existence  of  the 
hinterland  formed  by  the  fertile  basin  around  Tkout 
and  Tifelfel.  The  rugged  and  precipitous  rocks  of 
Tighanimine  are  grey  rather  than  ruddy  in  appearance, 
suggestive  of  the  hillsides  which  lie  immediately  to  the 
north  of  them,  so  that,  grand  though  it  undoubtedly  is, 
the  short  defile  between  Tkout  and  the  Wed  el  Abiod 
can  scarcely  be  held  to  rank  with  El  Kantara  in  the 
splendours  of  its  scenery  nor  with  the  great  canon  of 


170     AMONG  THE   HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

the  Rassira  whose  wild  magnificence  we  have,  albeit 
feebly,  attempted  to  describe.  But  there  is  an  interest- 
ing story  told  about  the  gorge  of  Tighanimine  which 
may  well  be  repeated  here. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  French  occupation  of  Algeria, 
to  be  exact,  I  think,  in  the  summer  of  1850,  a  column  of 
French  troops  was  carrying  out  a  series  of  marches 
through  the  heart  of  the  Aures  with  a  view,  presumably, 
to  showing  its  then  turbulent  inhabitants  that  Pax 
Gallica  was  not  unsupported  by  might ;  which  might, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  has  been  frequently  challenged  at 
one  time  or  another  by  the  warlike  descendants  of  those 
Berbers  who  stemmed  the  tide  of  the  Arab  invasion  some 
twelve  hundred  years  ago.  In  the  course  of  one  of  these 
marches  the  column  came  upon  the  gorge  by  way  of  the 
Wed  el  Abiod,  the  first  French  troops  to  reach  the  almost 
impassable  defile. 

In  those  days  the  track,  passable  to  wheeled  traffic 
when  we  saw  it  and  soon,  I  suppose,  to  be  converted  into 
a  highroad,  by  which  we  passed  northward  overlooking 
the  right  bank  of  the  stream,  did  not  exist,  the  only 
passage  through  the  gorge  consisting  of  the  narrowest 
of  ways,  so  encumbered  by  boulders  as  to  be  practically 
impassable  by  the  laden  mules  which  carried  the  im- 
pedimenta of  the  troops. 

The  Frenchmen,  therefore,  set  to  work  to  clear  the 
way,  and  laboriously  struggled  through  the  chasm 
beneath  its  frowning  cliffs  to  the  open  country  beyond, 
improving  the  track  as  they  progressed. 

Regarding  themselves  as  the  first  trained  soldiers 
to  work  their  way  through  the  pass,  considered  at  the 
time  to  be  one  of  the  most  inaccessible  in  all  the  rugged 
valleys  of  the  Aures  massif,  the  units  engaged  were 
somewhat    naturally    proud    of   their    achievement    and 


IN  THE  HEART   OF  THE   AURfiS  171 

requested  the  officer  commanding  the  force  to  allow 
them  to  commemorate  it  by  carving  the  names  of  their 
regiments  and  the  date  upon  some  suitable  rock  in  the 
valley. 

To  this  he  readily  assented,  and  a  search  was  made 
for  a  rock  flat  enough  to  take  the  inscription. 

Such  a  boulder  at  once  arrested  their  attention, 
ideally  placed  for  their  purpose  and  flat  as  if  trimmed 
to  receive  their  chisels. 

Climbing  up  to  this  well-chosen  rock  the  soldiers  began 
to  clean  it,  preparatory  to  immortalizing  their  exploit 
by  means  of  graven  stone.  The  rock,  however,  upon 
closer  examination  did  not  present  so  smooth  a  surface 
as  had  been  imagined,  and  a  preliminary  rubbing  revealed 
the  fact  that  human  hands  had  worked  upon  it  in  the 
past. 

Judge  of  the  amazement  of  the  soldiers  of  France  when 
some  one  among  them,  accustomed  to  the  deciphering 
of  inscriptions,  announced  that  the  rock  already  bore 
the  name  of  a  unit  of  a  great  disciplined  army,  an  army 
whose  traditions  had  been  as  glorious  as  their  own,  for 
the  time-worn  letters  discovered  upon  the  stone  informed 
the  column  that  the  gorge  of  Tighanimine  had  been 
traversed  and  a  track  laid  through  it  by  the  Sixth  Legion 
of  the  Roman  Army  in  the  reign  of  Antoninus  Pius  more 
than  sixteen  centuries  before  ! 

The  French,  naturally,  left  the  honour  of  the  passage 
to  those  to  whom  it  was  justly  due,  and  the  rock  with 
its  simple  announcement  of  a  military  achievement, 
greater  in  the  days  of  equality  of  arms  between  the  dis- 
ciplined soldier  and  his  determined  Berber  foe  than  any 
such  exploit  can  be  in  modern  times,  still  reminds  the 
traveller  through  the  gorge  of  the  days  when  Rome 
held  sway  over  Numidia,  when  her  cohorts  stationed  at 


172     AMONG   THE   HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

Lambese  to  the  north  of  the  Aures  were  called  upon 
to  hold  in  check  the  warlike  activities  of  the  forefathers 
of  the  Shawia  in  the  hills. 

Taking  leave  of  our  kindly  French  hosts  and  the 
Kaid's  son  beneath  the  shadow  of  the  towering  cliffs 
of  Tighanimine,  we  continued  our  way  through  the  defile 
to  emerge  into  the  valley  of  the  White  River  and  halt  a 
few  miles  higher  up  at  a  tiny  hamlet  upon  the  slope 
overlooking  the  right  or  north-western  bank  of  the 
stream. 

Here  we  were  received  by  the  local  headman,  for  Tag- 
hout,  with  its  score  and  a  half  of  tiny  huts,  was  not 
important  enough  to  require  the  residence  of  a  sheikh, 
and  we  found  that  a  very  small  and  dark  room,  containing 
a  platform  of  sticks  covered  with  a  mat  upon  which 
to  spread  our  blankets,  had  been  placed  at  our  disposal. 

Softened,  no  doubt,  by  the  luxury  of  a  European's 
home  at  Tkout,  we  passed  a  more  or  less  uncomfortable 
night  wakefully  listening  to  the  animated  conversations, 
carried  on  by  very  powerful  voices,  in  the  houses  round 
which  went  on  far  into  the  night  and  commenced  again 
even  before  the  first  streak  of  dawn  in  the  morning, 
the  few  hours  in  which  the  human  voices  were  still  being 
disturbed  by  the  short  sharp  barking  of  the  native  dogs. 

We  had  arrived  at  Taghout  after  dark  ;  it  was  only 
next  morning,  therefore,  that  we  learned  the  reason  of 
the  loud-voiced  discussions  which  had  disturbed  our 
night's  repose. 

Caf6s,  those  crowded  clubs  of  the  larger  villages  in 
which  the  male  population  spends  so  much  of  its  time 
and  money,  arc  conspicuous  by  their  absence  at  Taghout 
and  the  nights,  even  in  spring-time,  are  far  too  cold  at 
this  altitude  to  encourage  the  gossips  of  the  place  to 
foregather  at  the  draughty  corners  of  its  narrow  lanes, 


THE    DEFILE    OF    TIGHANIMINE. 


TAGHOCT, 


' •>  *■*:■;.! 


Tl    ■'S*,-\:     n     11 


IN  THE  HEART   OF  THE  AUR^S  173 

the  people,  therefore,  simply  retire  to  their  own  houses 
and  carry  on  their  conversations  from  them,  for  the 
hamlet  is  so  small  that  the  human  voice,  if  the  strident 
tones  of  an  excited  Shawia  may  be  called  human,  can 
easily  be  heard  from  one  end  of  it  to  another. 

Thus,  just  as  the  tired  wanderer  rolls  himself  in  his 
blankets  and  closes  his  eyes  in  the  hope  of  a  refreshing 
sleep  he  will  be  started  to  wakefulness  by  a  shout  of 
"  Oh,  Ali  ben  Mohammed  !  "  from  the  next-door  apart- 
ment, answered,  a  moment  later,  by  "  Here  am  I ;  Oh, 
Salah  !  "  from  the  opposite  end  of  the  village,  a  prelude 
to  conversation  lasting  an  hour  or  more  which,  loud  as 
it  must  necessarily  be  in  any  case,  will  soon  cause  him 
to  marvel  at  the  wondrous  capacity  of  the  human  lungs 
should  the  discussion  develop  into  a  dispute. 

The  houses  at  Taghout  were  such  as  might  be  expected 
in  so  small  a  hamlet,  mere  hovels  of  grey  stone  resembling 
the  dwellings  of  Tijdad  and  similar  villages  of  the  higher 
districts  of  the  Aures,  but  in  all  of  them  we  were  hospit- 
ably received  and  pressed  to  partake  of  the  usual  honey 
and  walnuts  which  are  always  offered  to  a  guest  in  the 
poorest  households  of  the  hills. 

In  olden  days  the  site  of  the  village  had  lain  higher 
up  the  slopes  of  the  north-western  wall  of  the  Wed  el 
Abiod  but,  in  the  troublous  times  before  the  arrival 
of  the  French,  it  had  been  destroyed  in  the  course  of  a 
conflict  between  some  Arabs  from  the  south  and  the 
Ouled  Daoud  Shawia  tribe,  which  inhabits  the  district, 
and  had  been  re-erected  lower  down  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
or  so  from  the  bank  of  the  oleander-bordered  stream 
beside  which  the  inhabitants  of  Taghout  cultivate  their 
tiny  fields  of  corn,  their  apricots,  walnuts  and  their 
figs. 

The  grey  rocky  valley  in  which  the  village  lies,  its 


174    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

sides  dotted  with  the  stunted  juniper  trees  which  we 
have  found  to  be  the  characteristic  of  the  valleys  farther 
to  the  west,  can  scarcely  be  considered  beautiful,  especially 
when  visited  after  a  stay  in  the  Rassira  canon,  and 
northerly  winds  sweeping  down  it  from  the  snow-capped 
mountain,  Ichemoul,  which  stands  at  its  head,  render 
the  district  unpleasantly  cold,  especially  at  night,  even 
when  spring  is  well  advanced,  but  the  valley  and  its 
villages  are  interesting  in  that  they  afford  opportunities 
of  studying  the  Berber  people  as  much  uninfluenced  by 
the  outside  world  as  in  any  part  of  the  Aures. 

We  found  plenty  of  occupation,  therefore,  during 
our  stay  at  Taghout  of  becoming  further  acquainted 
with  Shawia  crafts  and  customs,  an  examination  of 
which  we  had  commenced  elsewhere,  and  many  of  which 
I  have  already  described,  so  that  it  was  with  no  regret 
at  having  endured  for  a  spell  its  unavoidable  discomforts 
that  we  eventually  continued  our  journey  up  the  Wed 
el  Abiod  towards  the  northern  plateau,  the  railway  and 
home.  Wending  our  way  up  the  vale  of  the  White 
River,  along  a  track  which  might  well  be  described  as 
a  fairly  good  road  even  just  before  the  war,  we  soon 
came  upon  the  village  of  Arris,  then  a  station  of  the 
White  Fathers,  the  great  missionaries  of  North  Africa, 
followers  of  Cardinal  Lavigerie  whose  statue  at  Biskra 
overlooks  the  desert  in  which  he  and  his  subordinates 
have  worked  so  bravely  and  so  hard,  but  now  the  head- 
quarters of  the  administration  of  the  Commune  Mixte 
of  the  Aures,  an  administrative  area  which  may  be 
taken  to  comprise  the  whole  of  the  central  portion  of  the 
massif  from  the  northern  plateau  to  the  desert. 

From  Arris  we  continued  our  way  up  the  Wed  el  Abiod 
to  the  point  beneath  the  great  mountain  of  Ichemoul 
at  which  it  receives  upon  its  right  bank  the  waters   of 


IN  THE   HEART   OF  THE   AURjftS  175 

the  insignificant  brook  known  as  the  Wed  Basha, 
following  the  course  of  which  the  road  led  us  to  the 
small  village  of  Basha  in  which  we  were  to  pass  the 
night. 

Here,  as  at  Taghout,  no  chief  existed  who  could  offer 
us  a  lodging ;  we  were  obliged,  therefore,  to  sleep  in  a 
disused  store-room,  the  numerous  cracks  and  crevices 
in  which  compelled  us  to  light  a  fire,  for  the  night  was 
extremely  cold,  and  to  submit  to  the  state  of  semi-suffo- 
cation which  is  the  only  alternative  to  freezing  in  the 
higher  villages  of  the  Aures  during  a  great  part  of  the 
year.  Next  morning,  after  making  a  few  small  purchases 
for  the  museum  at  Oxford,  we  again  took  the  road  for 
an  hour  or  so,  before  turning  off  to  the  north-west  to 
follow  a  bridle-path  to  the  village  of  Bou  Hamar,  situated 
in  the  valley  of  the  Wed  Taga  on  the  northern  slopes 
of  the  massif.  As  we  gradually  ascended  the  high 
ridge  which  forms  the  backbone  of  the  Aures  overlooking 
the  level  plains  to  the  north  we  encountered  a  bitterly 
cold  wind  and  found  much  snow  still  lying  around  us, 
indeed  we  partook  of  our  midday  meal  among  deep 
snow-drifts  in  a  spot  sheltered  from  the  wind  in  which 
the  sun,  already  powerful,  soon  made  us  realize  that 
a  move  of  but  a  yard  or  two  may  make  all  the  difference 
between  spring  and  winter  on  the  summits  of  the 
Algerian  hills. 

Having  basked  for  an  hour  in  the  genial  warmth  of 
the  sun  we  again  faced  the  icy  blast  and  surmounted 
the  ridge,  whence  glorious  views  of  the  plateau  unfolded 
themselves  to  our  gaze,  and  commenced  our  descent 
of  the  northern  slopes  of  the  Aures,  passing  through  a 
rocky  gorge  in  which  it  was  necessary  to  ford  the  Wed 
Taga  upon  several  occasions,  and  so  eventually  arriving 
at  Bou  Hamar  situated  in  a  comparatively  fertile  valley 


176    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

from  which  we  obtained  many  fine  glimpses  of  snow-capped 
hills,  now  left  behind  us  to  the  south. 

At  Bou  Hamar  our  host,  the  sheikh,  provided  us 
with  warm  accommodation,  for  the  place  lies  high,  in  a 
well-built  room  attached  to  his  own  house  containing  a 
fireplace,  built  upon  the  European  plan  with  a  sufficient 
outlet  for  its  smoke,  which  enabled  us  to  spend  our  even- 
ings in  comfort  untempered  with  suffocation,  a  blessing 
for  which  we  were  duly  thankful  after  some  of  our  recent 
experiences  in  less  pretentious  dwellings.  The  sheikh, 
upon  whose  burnous  the  scarlet  ribbon  of  the  Legion 
of  Honour  recalled  a  very  gallant  action  in  the  service 
of  the  French  performed  in  years  gone  by,  expressed 
every  willingness  to  help  us  in  our  work,  and  used  to 
spend  much  time  discussing  with  us  the  various  subjects 
we  were  attempting  to  study. 

Not  only  this,  but,  being  a  man  of  very  considerable 
learning  in  Islamic  lore,  he  insisted  upon  entering  into 
long  discussions  on  comparative  religion,  which  means 
that  he  was  anxious  to  get  my  views  upon  the  birth 
of  our  Lord  in  order,  as  I  thought,  to  refute  them  by 
his  own. 

Now  this  placed  me  in  a  very  awkward  position,  for 
if  there  is  one  subject  which  I  have  found,  as  a  student 
of  Mohammedan  customs,  it  is  wiser  to  avoid  than  to 
discuss,  that  subject  is  my  own  religion.  Let  the  student 
and  the  Shawia  agree  to  differ  upon  this  subject  and 
no  ill  feeling  will  result  on  cither  side,  but  a  chance  remark 
falling  from  even  the  most  careful  tongue  in  the  course 
of  such  a  discussion  may  well  have  the  effect  of  putting 
an  end  to  the  traveller's  researches  over  a  wide  extent 
of  country. 

At  Bou  Hamar,  however,  I  found  that  the  sheikh 
was  merely  questioning  me  with  the  object  of  advancing 


IN   THE   HEART   OF  THE   AURfiS  177 

his  own  knowledge  of  the  religion  of  France,  so  that  I 
was  able  to  retire  from  the  discussion  on  the  score  of 
ignorance  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  and  so  extricate 
myself  from  a  somewhat  difficult  position,  for  our  talks 
took  place  in  the  presence  of  other  natives  who  might 
reasonably  be  expected  to  take  hold  of  my  words  and 
use  them  to  our  disadvantage. 

The  village  of  Bou  Hamar  is  similar  to  the  hamlets 
of  the  Wed  el  Abiod,  but  larger  and  rather  more  scattered, 
and  its  houses  are  distinctly  well  built,  though  con- 
structed upon  the  usual  plan  of  dwellings  in  the  northern 
parts  of  the  Aures,  indeed  its  little  minaretless  mosque 
of  modern  construction  is  the  best  example  I  have  seen 
of  pure  Shawia  building  for,  as  my  readers  will  have 
observed,  the  Berbers  of  the  hills  are  not  famous  for 
their  architectural  skill. 

Leaving  Bou  Hamar  after  a  few  days  spent  in  the 
revision  of  our  notes  and  the  addition  to  them  of  a  certain 
amount  of  material  not  already  obtained,  we  rode  through 
a  wooded  country  to  descend  into  the  plateau  at  the 
great  Roman  ruins  of  Timgad,  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
sites  to  be  visited  in  the  whole  of  the  ancient  world,  the 
fair  city  which  was  called  into  being  by  a  vast  military 
camp  at  Lambese  a  few  miles  to  the  west  whence, 
presumably,  the  soldiers  of  the  Sixth  Legion  sallied 
forth  to  the  passage  of  the  gorge  of  Tighanimine. 

Even  to  those  who  can  boast  of  no  knowledge 
of  archaeology  and  the  history  of  Rome,  these  ruins, 
many  acres  in  extent,  with  their  theatre,  their  public 
buildings  and  baths,  their  lines  of  graceful  columns  and 
streets  in  the  pavements  of  which  are  still  to  be  found 
the  ruts  worn  by  the  wheels  of  Roman  chariots,  must 
not  only  convey  a  very  lasting  impression,  but  provide 
food  for  reflection  upon  the  state  of  the  country  in  the 

12 


178    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

days  when  it  enjoyed  a  greater  rainfall  than  at  present, 
before  the  destroyers  from  Arabia  had  laid  their  hands 
upon  the  land  and  the  ordered  peace  of  Rome  had  given 
place  to  the  centuries  of  chaos  and  misrule  which 
intervened  before  the  French  assumed  responsibility 
for  the  reconstruction  of  Algeria  ;  and,  as  he  passes  on 
by  road  to  Batna,  now  the  largest  and  most  important 
European  settlement  of  the  plateau,  the  traveller  may 
well  be  excused  if  he  falls  to  comparing  in  his  mind  the 
luxury  and  splendour  of  the  past,  traces  of  which  he 
has  left  behind  him  at  Timgad,  with  the  unlovely  modern 
garrison  town  he  is  approaching. 

At  Batna  our  rambles  through  the  central  portion 
of  the  Aures  massif  had  come  to  an  end. 

Having  wandered  from  the  Saharan  oasis  of 
Mechounech  to  the  Berber  settlement  of  Baniane,  to 
the  wild  remote  villages  of  the  Rassira  canon  and  the 
civilization  of  the  government  post  at  Tkout,  we  had 
passed  to  the  upper  valleys  of  the  Aures  and  to  a  road 
which,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  will  some  day  be  continued 
southward  until  the  motorist  may  follow  in  the  foot- 
steps of  our  patient  and  sure-footed  mules  to  explore 
for  himself  one  of  the  most  remarkable  districts  in 
Algeria. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  HEALING  ART  IN  THE  HILLS 

THE  MAIN  OBJECT  OF  OUR  JOURNEYS — THE  HEALING  ART  PRACTISED 
SECRETLY  IN  THE  AURES — WE  ATTEMPT  TO  STUDY  IT — OUR  PATIENTS 
IN      THE      MOUNTAINS — UNEXPECTED      MEETING      WITH      A      NATIVE 

SURGEON PRIMITIVE    INSTRUMENTS — TREPANNING FORTITUDE     OF 

THE  PATIENTS — A  FRACTURED  KNEE-CAP "  CUPPING  "  AND  DEN- 
TISTRY— MEDICINE  AMONG  THE  SHAwfA — ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEALING 
ART  IN  THE   AURES MEDICINE   AND   MEDICAL  MAGIC. 

DURING  the  whole  of  our  wanderings  in  the  western 
and  central  valleys  of  the  Aures,  and  to  rather 
a  less  extent  in  our  final  journey  up  the  region  dominated 
by  the  heights  of  the  Djebel  Cherchar,  we  had  in  view 
a  special  object  in  addition  to  the  general  survey  of  life 
among  the  Shawia  which  we  were  attempting  to  compile, 
an  object  which  we  were  fortunate  enough  to  attain, 
namely  a  study  of  the  healing  art  which  had  been  known 
for  many  years  to  be  secretly  practised  in  the  mountains. 
This  healing  art  has  seemed  to  us  so  interesting,  and  the 
new  light  we  have  been  lucky  enough  to  throw  upon  it 
has  revealed  such  remarkable  facts  connected  with  it, 
that  I  have  thought  some  description  of  the  surgery  and 
medicine  of  the  Aures  should  find  a  place  in  the  pages 
of  a  book  in  which  an  attempt  is  made  to  lay  before  the 
general  reader  an  account  of  native  life  in  the  hills  ;  and 
as  our  information  on  the  subject  was  gleaned  here  and 
there,  little  by  little,  as  we  wandered  over  the  country, 
I  have  considered  it  best  to  devote  a  brief  chapter  to 

179 


180     AMONG   THE   HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

it  instead  of  giving  in  the  sequence  in  which  they  were 
obtained  such  notes  as  we  collected  in  the  various  hamlets 
as  we  moved. 

My  readers  who,  in  their  imagination,  have  followed 
in  our  footsteps  and  have  noted  the  numerous  quaint 
superstitions  and  magical  rites  to  which  we  have  had 
so  frequently  to  refer  may  well  learn  with  surprise  that 
medicine  and  surgery,  worthy  of  any  consideration  at 
all,  are  to  be  found  in  such  a  land  of  sorceresses  and 
magicians  as  the  demon-haunted  hills  on  the  edge  of 
the  Sahara  ;  they  may  reasonably  suppose  that,  in  case 
of  illness  or  injury,  the  Shawia  have  recourse  only  to 
the  use  of  charms  or  magical  observances  such  as  are, 
indeed,  largely  employed  by  these  sorceresses  and 
magicians,  for  even  a  fairly  close  acquaintance  with  the 
natives  formed  in  their  mountain  homes  will  not  reveal 
the  fact  that  men  trained  in  the  healing  art  of  the  Middle 
Ages  practise  this  art  to-day  in  remote  hamlets  of  the 
hills  and  in  the  tents  of  the  desert  nomads  beneath  them. 

Many  years  ago,  however,  the  existence  of  such 
practitioners  became  known  to  the  French  authorities, 
for  persons  bearing  scars  indicative  of  surgical  operations 
were  observed  by  officials  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
Aures,  persons  who  could  never  have  undergone  such 
operations  save  in  their  own  homes,  and  at  the  hands 
of  native  surgeons,  one  particular  scar  being  observed 
with  startling  frequency,  that  left  by  the  removal  of 
bone  from  the  skull,  the  scar  of  the  trepan. 

But  although  these  scars  were  found  almost  daily, 
all  efforts  to  investigate  at  all  closely  the  methods  of 
the  Shawia  surgeons  proved  more  or  less  unavailing,  for 
these  men,  suspicious  enough  by  nature,  became  so 
secretive  when  their  occupation  became  known  to  the 
authorities  that  they  not  only  refused  to  discuss  their 


THE   HEALING   ART   IN   THE   HILLS       181 

art  but  even  pretended  that  it  had  ceased  to  exist  in 
the  hills  ;  for,  after  French  law  had  been  established 
in  Algeria,  the  man  who  performed  an  operation  re- 
sulting in  the  death  of  his  patient  was,  of  course,  liable 
to  be  held  responsible  for  the  death,  with  consequences 
very  unpleasant  to  himself,  if  he  were  not  in  possession 
of  the  recognized  French  qualifications  to  carry  on  a 
doctor's  work,  qualifications  to  which  none  of  the  primi- 
tive Shawia  could  pretend.  The  doctor,  then,  became 
technically  an  outlaw  and,  in  consequence,  he  considered 
it  necessary  to  practise  his  art  with  the  utmost  secrecy 
and  cunning,  distrusting  every  attempt  to  pry  into  his 
concerns  and  regarding  with  jealousy  and  well  simulated 
contempt  the  French  medical  officers  attached  to  the 
various  government  stations,  for  he  realized  that  if  his 
patients  became  acquainted  with  modern  European 
medicine  and  surgery  his  livelihood  would  be  gone. 

The  Shawia  surgeon,  therefore,  in  addition  to  conceal- 
ing his  own  methods,  loses  no  opportunity  of  belittling 
those  of  European  practitioners,  whom  he  accuses  of 
ignorance  of  all  operations  save  the  one  to  which  the 
Mohammedan  would  rather  die  than  submit,  namely 
the  amputation  of  a  limb. 

In  the  circumstances  it  is  scarcely  surprising  that  the 
traveller  in  the  Aures  sees  nothing  of  the  work  of  the 
surgeons  nor  even  learns  of  their  existence  in  the  course 
of  a  hurried  journey,  and  that  collections  of  the  very 
primitive  instruments  with  which  they  produce  some 
really  remarkable  results  have  up  to  now  been  extremely 
rare  in  museums  if,  indeed,  anything  approaching  a 
representative  collection  had  ever  been  brought  out  of 
the  hills  before  1914. 

It  was,  therefore,  with  scant  hope  of  realizing  our 
ambition  that  upon  commencing  our  general  work  among 


182    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

the  Shawia  we  decided  to  endeavour  to  learn  something 
of  their  surgery  and  to  acquire  such  of  their  instruments 
as  we  could  find. 

Now  I  am  not  a  doctor  and,  except  for  the  little  know- 
ledge of  medicine — sometimes  a  dangerous  possession — 
which  comes  to  those  who  spend  much  of  their  lives 
beyond  the  reach  of  skilled  medical  aid,  I  can  claim 
no  acquaintance  with  the  healing  art,  nevertheless  I 
decided  that  the  most  likely  road  to  success  in  my  search 
for  native  practitioners  would  be  found  in  the  distribu- 
tion of  medicines  to  all  and  sundry  who  might  ask  for 
them  in  the  mountains. 

We  accordingly  provided  ourselves  liberally  with 
dressings,  bandages,  and  such  simple  drugs  as  we  knew 
to  be  harmless,  and  commenced  our  work  in  Algeria 
in  an  almost  officious  readiness  to  benefit,  or  at  any  rate 
to  practise  on,  our  neighbours.  The  natural  love  of 
both  the  Arab  and  the  Shawia  for  anything  which  can 
be  obtained  for  nothing  soon  brought  us  plenty  of 
opportunities  of  getting  rid  of  our  drugs.  No  sooner 
did  we  become  at  all  well  known  in  a  village  than  our 
residence  would  be  besieged  from  morning  until  night 
by  the  halt  and  the  maimed,  some  of  them  brought  upon 
mules  from  many  miles  around,  to  try  the  effect  of  our 
pills,  our  tincture  of  iodine,  our  Elliman's,  our  salts,  or, 
especially,  our  quinine,  the  use  of  which  had  become 
known  throughout  the  hills,  but  for  the  purchase  of  which 
during  a  visit  to  a  town  the  natives  begrudged  the  money. 

But  not  only  the  sick  and  injured  demanded  our 
assistance ;  many  perfectly  healthy  spectators  at  our 
outdoor  consultations  considered  that  they,  too,  might 
benefit  by  a  dose  for  some  complaint  to  which  they  were 
liable,  while  some,  more  crafty  than  their  neighbours, 
tried  their  best  to  secure  a  small  stock  of  pills  for  various 


THE  HEALING  ART  IN  THE  HILLS       183 

ailments  to  be  sold  to  their  friends  as  occasion  offered, 
probably  with  no  regard  at  all  to  the  suitability  of  the 
drug  for  the  complaint.  It  was  necessary,  therefore, 
to  keep  a  sharp  eye  on  our  patients  and  to  administer 
medicine  only  to  those  who  would  swallow  it  in  our 
presence. 

Needless  to  say,  very  many  sufferers  were  brought 
to  us  for  whom  we  could  do  absolutely  nothing,  but 
if  a  "  practice  "  which  constantly  increases  in  size  can 
be  taken  as  a  criterion  of  the  doctor's  skill  then,  were 
it  not  for  the  fact  that  our  aid  was  rendered  gratis,  and 
so  to  be  eagerly  sought,  we  should  by  this  time  have 
begun  to  regard  ourselves  as  no  mean  practitioners  of 
the  healing  art ! 

Any  attempt  at  surgery,  of  course,  we  carefully  avoided 
unless  the  syringing  of  ears  can  be  dignified  with  the 
name  of  a  minor  operation.  It  seems  that  when  once 
the  traveller  has  commenced  to  syringe  ears  in  the  Aures 
he  can  continue  that  unpleasant  occupation  all  day  with- 
out interruption. 

No  sooner  will  he  have  sent  one  patient  away  than 
some  one  among  the  spectators  will  insist  upon  under- 
going the  treatment,  apparently  in  the  belief  that  it  will 
benefit  him  should  he  ever  really  require  it  in  the  future 
rather  than  with  a  view  to  removing  any  existing  incon- 
venience ;  indeed  upon  one  occasion,  when  a  syringing 
had  relieved  a  girl  who  was  reputed  to  be  deaf,  we  were 
absolutely  besieged  by  applicants  for  the  treatment, 
some  of  whom  even  accompanied  us  during  a  whole 
day's  march  when  our  medicine  chest  had  already  been 
packed  on  a  mule  preparatory  to  a  move. 

Lotions  for  the  eyes,  too,  were  in  very  great  request, 
for  diseases  of  the  eye  are  extremely  common  in  the 
desert  and  the  hills,  while  all  day  long  there  came  to  us 


184    AMONG  THE   HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

parents  bringing  with  them  children  suffering  from  skin 
complaints  caused,  no  doubt,  by  the  dirty  surroundings 
in  which  the  natives  live. 

Although  we  very  soon  found  that  free  medicine  can 
rapidly  build  up  a  practice  in  the  hills  and  the  desert, 
for  a  long  time  our  carefully  cloaked  inquiries  as  to  the 
existence  of  native  doctors  met  with  no  response.  When- 
ever we  suggested  to  a  surgical  case  that  he  should  seek 
the  aid  of  one  of  the  skilful  Shawia  practitioners,  the 
fame  of  whose  reputation  had  reached  us  even  in  far- 
off  England,  we  were  assured  that  no  such  surgeons 
existed  in  the  community,  whereas  we  had  heard  from 
a  French  official  that  trepanning  was  frequently  practised 
in  the  neighbourhood  though,  he  said,  we  could  hope  for 
no  such  luck  as  to  find  the  operator  or  see  his  instruments. 

The  only  reply  to  our  inquiries  which  we  at  first  received 
was  that  all  the  sick  and  injured  of  the  mountains 
immediately  called  in  the  assistance  of  the  French  official 
doctor  at  the  nearest  government  post,  many  miles 
distant  over  the  hills,  a  statement  which  we  knew  to 
be  a  lie  ;  we  began  to  despair,  therefore,  of  ever  finding 
a  native  surgeon,  and  to  believe  that  all  our  distribution 
of  pills  and  syringing  of  ears  would  turn  out  to  be  labour 
expended  in  vain.  Suddenly,  however,  and  quite  un- 
expectedly, our  luck  changed. 

Having  long  since  given  up  asking  the  direct  question 
as  to  whether  or  not  a  surgeon  existed  in  the  locality, 
we  were  chatting  on  general  topics  to  a  chief  and  a  small 
group  of  natives  in  a  village  in  which  we  had  recently 
arrived,  when  I  suddenly  inquired  of  the  headman  if 
he  thought  the  doctor  of  his  community  would  care  to 
receive  one  or  two  English  scalpels  such  as  I  produced 
from  my  pocket  for  his  inspection. 

Apparently  taken  by  surprise  at  my  question  the  chief 


THE  HEALING   ART   IN  THE  HILLS        185 

replied,  "  No  doubt  he  would  ;  but  here  he  is,  let  us 
ask  him,"  and  there,  at  last,  stood  before  us  a  native 
surgeon,  the  nature  of  his  calling  revealed.  Quick  as 
thought  we  pressed  home  our  advantage.  Explaining 
to  the  somewhat  disconcerted  doctor  that  the  fame  of 
the  practitioners  of  the  Aures  had  induced  us  to  travel 
so  far  from  our  native  land  to  learn  something  of  their 
methods,  that  no  one  need  fear  that  his  name  would 
be  disclosed  to  the  authorities  if  he  should  supply  us 
with  details  of  his  art  and  that,  even  if  (as  the  doctor 
doubtless  believed)  the  surgery  of  Europe  was  in  a 
deplorable  condition,  English  cutlery,  in  the  form  of 
such  instruments  as  we  had  brought  with  us,  was  of  a 
quality  unobtainable  in  the  hills,  we  persuaded  our 
newly  found  friend  to  accept  a  few  presents  from  our 
medical  stores,  and  to  give  us  our  first  glimpse  of  the 
work  of  the  surgeons  of  the  Aures.  Delighted  at  the 
good  fortune  which  seemed  at  last  to  be  smiling  upon 
our  efforts,  we  spared  no  trouble  to  ingratiate  ourselves 
with  this  the  first  practitioner  we  met,  so  that  when  the 
time  arrived  for  us  to  leave  his  village  in  the  spring  of 
1913,  we  had  already  seen  something  of  his  work, 
we  had  obtained  from  him  all  the  instruments  necessary 
for  performing  the  operation  of  the  trepan  and,  most 
important  of  all,  we  had  persuaded  him  not  only  to 
continue  the  instruction  he  had  given  us  during  the 
following  winter  but  also  to  promise  us  introductions 
to  some  of  his  colleagues  in  the  hills.  Thus,  from  a 
lucky  and  unexpected  beginning,  we  were  able  to  inau- 
gurate our  researches  into  Shawia  medicine  and  surgery 
with  a  very  fair  prospect  of  success,  for  subsequent  ex- 
peditions were  to  bring  us  into  contact  with  most,  if  not 
all,  of  the  leading  practitioners  of  the  Aures,  from  whom 
we  obtained  later  on  a  fund  of  information  as  to  their 


186    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

methods  and  a  collection  of  instruments,  numbering 
more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  in  all,  of  which  some 
sixty  representative  examples  may  be  found  in  the  Pitt- 
Rivers  Museum  at   Oxford  to-day. 

Those  who  practise  the  healing  art  in  the  fastnesses 
of  the  Aures,  while  lacking  all  modern  instruction  in 
medicine  and  surgery,  can  scarcely  be  termed  untrained, 
for  the  budding  practitioner  undergoes  a  long  period 
of  apprenticeship  to  some  established  doctor,  almost 
invariably  a  relative  of  his  own,  before  he  commences 
to  make  a  livelihood  by  his  art. 

Thus  for  generations  sons  have  learned  from  their  fathers 
the  craft  which  the  family  has  followed  for  years  uncounted, 
to  pass  on  their  knowledge  to  their  children  and  so  keep 
alive  the  mediaeval  surgery  and  medicine  which  we  shall 
find  is  practised  in  parts  of  Algeria  to  this  day.  Working 
with  the  most  primitive  of  tools,  saws,  drills,  scalpers, 
probes,  cauteries,  etc.,  cast  from  the  roughest  iron  by 
the  silversmiths  of  the  mountains,  the  Shawia  surgeon 
employs  no  anaesthetic  to  diminish  the  sufferings  of 
his  patients,  to  whose  natural  toughness  he  must  owe 
much  of  the  success  which  he  undoubtedly  achieves. 
The  patient — we  might  well  say  the  victim — is  held  down 
by  a  number  of  assistants,  his  groans  notwithstanding, 
and  the  surgeon  wreaks  his  will  upon  him,  relying,  as  he 
claims,  upon  the  delicacy  of  his  touch  to  reduce  to  a 
minimum  the  suffering  his  operations  must  necessarily 
cause. 

But  for  all  the  crudity  of  his  methods  and  the  rough 
nature  of  his  tools  the  Shawia  surgeon  can  certainly 
point  to  some  very  remarkable  results  of  his  work. 

The  cases  of  trepanning,  already  referred  to  as  having 
first  drawn  attention  to  the  existence  of  real  surgery 
in  the  hills,  furnish  excellent  examples  of  what  has  been 


THE  HEALING  ART  IN  THE  HILLS        187 

and    is    being    done.     The    frequency    with    which    they 
have   been  noted  is  extraordinary. 

In  a  stony  country,  among  quick-tempered  and  vin- 
dictive natives,  blows  on  the  head  requiring  the  removal 
of  a  piece  of  damaged  bone  from  the  skull  are  certain 
to  be  far  from  uncommon,  but  the  Shawia  surgeons 
appear  to  delight  in  this  operation  more  than  in  such 
others  as  they  can  perform  and,  therefore,  it  is  probably 
resorted  to  more  frequently  than  is  really  necessary, 
while  two  French  writers,  Doctors  Malbot  and  Verneau, 
many  years  ago  recorded  a  case  which  had  come  before 
them  of  a  living  woman  who  had  actually  allowed  a 
piece  of  bone  to  be  removed  from  her  skull  in  order  to 
substantiate  a  fictitious  charge  of  assault  which  she  wished 
to  prefer  against  her  husband  ! 

This  oft-performed  operation  of  the  trepan  may  be 
chosen  for  description  as  providing  an  excellent  example 
of  the  methods  employed  by  the  Shawia  surgeons  of 
the  Aures. 

Let  the  reader  imagine  the  interior  of  an  ordinary  dark 
and  dirty  stone  hut,  such  as  we  have  already  described. 
In  a  corner  of  it,  upon  a  heap  of  mats,  rugs  or  old 
sacks,  lies  the  patient,  surrounded  by  friends  who  have 
come  in  to  help  the  surgeon,  awaiting  in  his  own  home 
the  arrival  of  the  practitioner  who  has  been  summoned 
from  some  neighbouring  village  to  attend  him,  for  by 
no  means  every  hamlet  can  boast  of  a  doctor  among 
its  inhabitants.  A  fire  glows  upon  the  hearth  tended 
by  some  of  the  women  of  the  family,  others  of  whom  are 
busy  tearing  up  strips  of  cotton  dress  material  to  serve 
as  bandages,  preparing  bowls  of  water  or,  if  they  be 
skilled  in  the  requirements  of  a  Shawia  sick-room,  melting 
the  butter  and  honey  which  the  doctor  will  almost  certainly 
require  for  his  dressings. 


188     AMONG  THE   HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

Presently  the  great  man  arrives  accompanied  by  one 
or  more  of  his  pupils. 

A  preliminary  examination  having  shown  him  that 
an  immediate  operation  should  be  performed,  the  doctor 
produces  from  a  leathern  wallet  provided  with  several 
pockets,  which  he  is  wearing  slung  over  his  shoulder 
beneath  his  cloak,  the  few  simple  instruments  he  will 
require  and,  selecting  the  one  with  which  he  will  com- 
mence his  task,  a  scalping  iron  with  a  circular  cutting 
edge  some  two  inches  in  diameter  very  much  resembling 
a  large  wad-punch  such  as  is  used  by  gunsmiths  in  England, 
he  proceeds  to  heat  it  in  the  fire  until  it  glows  red-hot 
when,  his  assistants  holding  the  patient  in  position, 
he  applies  it  firmly  to  the  scalp  over  the  seat  of  the 
injury,  the  iron  searing  its  way  down  to  the  bone,  after 
which  he  removes  by  means  of  its  red-hot  edge  the  piece 
of  scalp  thus  burnt  round,  the  hot  iron  preventing  the 
flow  of  blood  which  the  use  of  a  cold  instrument  would 
have  caused. 

This  done  he  takes  a  drill,  on  the  blade  of  which  a 
couple  of  "  shoulders "  or  projections  are  designed  to 
guard  against  excessive  penetration,  and  proceeds  at  once 
to  bore  a  hole  in  the  skull  which  may  completely  pierce 
it,  should  the  surgeon  consider  it  necessary  to  provide 
an  outlet  for  any  haemorrhage  which  may  have  taken 
place  beneath  the  bone,  or  which,  in  some  cases,  is  drilled 
only  partly  through  the  skull  in  order  to  afford  a  starting- 
point  for  the  saw.  The  European  spectator  will  note 
when  the  surgeon  commences  to  use  his  drill  that  not 
only  does  he  seem  to  disregard  even  the  most  elementary 
principles  of  surgical  cleanliness  as  understood  in  Europe, 
but  that  he  does  not  even  attempt  to  wash  his  instruments 
before  use. 

I  have  frequently  questioned  Shawia  doctors  upon  this 


SHAWIA    SURGICAL    INSTRUMENTS. 

1.  Scalper.  2.  Drill.  3.  Saws. 

4.  Elevator.  5.  Retractor.  6.  Dental  forceps. 


A    DEMONSTRATION    OF    SPLINTING. 


To  face  p.  188. 


THE  HEALING  ART  IN  THE  HILLS        189 

point,  and  have  always  received  the  reply  that  they 
clean  their  instruments  after  use  only,  and  then  merely 
by  washing  them  in  any  water,  cold  or  hot,  which  may 
be  available. 

The  hole  having  been  drilled  into  his  skull,  the  patient 
will  often  be  left  to  recover  from  the  treatment  he  has 
undergone  until  the  following  day,  when  the  doctor  will 
return  to  continue  the  operation.  During  the  next 
stage  of  the  proceedings  the  surgeon  applies  to  the  hole 
he  has  made  a  small  and  often  very  coarse  iron  saw,  the 
blade  of  which  is  usually  flattened  and  turned  down 
at  right  angles  to  the  handle  at  its  farther  end,  the  end 
thus  turned  down  being  serrated  with  a  number  of  roughly 
filed  teeth.  But  the  saw  is  used  with  great  care,  and 
only  a  very  little  work  is  done  with  it  by  most  practi- 
tioners upon  the  first  occasion  of  its  use,  the  operation 
being  recommenced  daily  until  all  of  the  bone  to  be 
removed  has  been  sawn  round,  when  it  is  raised  by  means 
of  a  small  iron  instrument  resembling  a  screw-driver 
(I  have  found  a  European  tool  of  this  description  in  use 
by  a  Shawia  for  the  purpose)  and  subsequently  removed 
with  the  aid  of  iron  retractors  or  hooks. 

Upon  some  occasions  so  little  use  is  made  of  the  saw 
upon  each  daily  visit  of  the  doctor  that  one  of  the  most 
successful  practitioners  I  have  met  with  frequently  takes 
a  fortnight  or  more  to  cut  round  a  piece  of  bone  as  large 
as  a  halfpenny,  his  object  being  to  reduce  to  a  minimum 
the  strain  to  which  he  must  necessarily  cause  the  sufferer 
to  submit. 

An  operation  having  been  completed,  a  dressing  of 
honey,  butter,  and  certain  powdered  herbs  is  applied 
to  the  part,  which  is  then  covered  with  a  pad  of  sheep's 
wool  held  in  place  by  dirty  strips  of  dress  material 
provided  by  the  patient's  household. 


190    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

Such  is  the  operation  of  the  trepan  as  performed  by 
one  of  my  native  surgeon  friends  and  indeed,  with  very 
slight  modifications,  by  all  the  practitioners  I  have  met 
with  in  the  Aures. 

Without  attempting  the  wellnigh  impossible  task 
of  deciding  what  percentage  of  success  attends  the  Shawia 
surgeon  or  discussing  further  the  various  cases  of  head 
operations,  and  they  are  many,  which  came  to  my 
notice  in  the  hills,  I  will  merely  give  one  definite  example 
of  recovery,  that  of  the  first  such  case  I  met  with. 

The  patient  was  a  youth  who  had  received  a  violent 
blow  from  some  such  implement  as  a  stone,  or  a  club, 
or  whose  injury  may  have  resulted  from  a  fall  upon  a 
hillside  ;  when  I  saw  him  in  1913,  the  portion  of  his  skull 
to  be  removed  had  been  but  half  sawn  away,  and  he  was 
suffering,  in  addition,  from  a  fractured  bone  in  the  leg. 

When  I  returned  to  the  Aures  a  year  later  I  found 
the  lad  in  an  apparently  excellent  state  of  health,  I  saw 
the  scar  of  the  operation,  and  I  procured  from  the 
surgeon  the  fragment  of  bone  removed  from  his  head, 
which  fragment,  together  with  others  I  have  collected, 
may  now  be  seen  in  the  Pitt-Rivers  Museum  with  the 
instruments  used  in  its  removal.  While  the  operation 
of  the  trepan  is  one  which  is  performed  with  remarkable 
frequency  in  the  fastnesses  of  the  Aures,  it  is  by  no  means 
the  only  one  which  the  Shawia  surgeons  are  capable 
of  undertaking  with  success. 

Not  only  do  most  of  them  carefully  remove  bone  that 
has  been  injured  by,  let  us  say,  gunshot  wounds  from  the 
limbs,  but  some  of  them  have  succeeded  in  replacing 
such  bone  by  pieces  cut  fresh  from  the  limbs  of  animals 
although,  curiously  enough,  no  attempt  is  made  to  replace 
bone  removed  by  trepanning,  the  skin  of  the  scalp,  re- 
forming over  the  aperture,  being  the  only  covering  deemed 


THE  HEALING  ART  IN  THE  HILLS        191 

necessary  for  the  hole  in  the  skull.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  wiry  constitutions  of  the  Shawia  do  much 
to  help  their  surgeons  to  success. 

To  any  one  unused  to  a  life  of  hardship  it  may  well 
seem  incredible  that  the  human  frame  can  stand  the 
appalling  suffering  which  the  operations  of  the  Shawia 
surgeons  must  inflict ;  at  the  risk  of  harrowing  my 
reader's  feelings,  therefore,  I  will  describe  a  scene  I 
witnessed  in  1920  as  an  example  of  the  treatment  the 
native  can  and  does  endure. 

I  was  invited  by  a  surgeon  well  known  and  much 
respected  over  a  wide  area  of  country,  who  had  come 
to  regard  me  in  the  light  of  a  pupil,  to  accompany  him 
to  a  neighbouring  village  to  see  a  case  which  was  causing 
him  much  anxiety. 

We  found  the  patient  lying  upon  the  usual  bundle 
of  rugs,  etc.,  in  a  large  room  in  a  patch  of  sunlight  stream- 
ing through  an  open  door.  He  was  suffering  from  a 
lateral  fracture  of  the  knee-cap,  the  result  of  a  fall  in 
the  mountains,  the  upper  half  of  the  knee-cap  having 
been  drawn  upward,  and  so  away  from  the  lower  half, 
by  contraction  of  the  muscles.  The  problem  before 
the  surgeon  was  how  best  to  restore  the  upper  fragment 
of  bone  to  a  position  in  which  it  could  reunite  with 
the  lower  one. 

Causing  four  of  the  patient's  friends  who  were  present 
to  hold  the  man  still,  the  doctor  attempted  without 
success  to  force  the  bone  downwards  with  his  hands, 
wringing  groans  from  the  sufferer  whom  he  and  his 
assistants  endeavoured  to  calm  by  means  of  rough  chaff 
which,  brutal  though  it  would  doubtless  be  considered 
in  a  European  sick-room,  certainly  produced  the  desired 
effect  of  causing  the  patient  to  forget  his  agony  as  soon 
as  the  pressure  on  his  injured  limb  was  removed. 


192     AMONG  THE   HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

Finding  himself  unable  to  move  the  bone  sufficiently 
by  hand,  the  surgeon  determined  to  resort  to  sterner 
measures. 

Placing  the  round  wooden  handle  of  one  of  his  instru- 
ments above  the  knee-cap,  he  proceeded  to  beat  the  bone 
downwards  by  means  of  heavy  blows  of  an  iron  hammer 
applied  to  the  wooden  handle  above  it !  The  patient, 
his  face  like  death,  redoubled  his  previous  groans. 

At  last,  after  nearly  a  dozen  blows  had  been  struck, 
the  surgeon  found  that  he  had  beaten  the  bone  as  far 
as  he  wished  ;  he  accordingly  smeared  some  hot  pitch 
over  the  surrounding  skin,  applied  (by  means  of  a  red- 
hot  iron)  the  cautery  to  which  the  natives  resort  upon 
every  possible  occasion  and,  finally,  bandaged  the  knee 
in  such  a  manner  as  he  hoped  would  retain  the  two  portions 
of  the  broken  knee-cap  in  contact  with  one  another. 

This  done,  he  murmured  the  usual  "  In  the  name  of 
God,"  and  the  operation  was  at  an  end. 

And  now  I  come  to  the  point  of  my  story.  Within 
five  minutes  of  the  application  of  the  cautery  (itself, 
I  should  imagine,  a  most  unpleasant  experience),  after 
all  the  terrible  agony  he  had  endured  during  the  slow 
pressing  and  the  hammering  of  his  injured  knee,  the 
patient  calmly  proceeded  to  join  the  doctor  in  a  meal 
of  meat  and  kuskus,  ordering  coffee  for  me,  and  directing 
his  women-folk  to  explain  to  me  the  working  of  a  loom 
which  he  had  noticed  I  was  looking  at,  laughing  good- 
humouredly  when  I  complimented  him  upon  the  forti- 
tude he  displayed  ! 

In  very  truth  a  life  of  hardship  has  made  the  Shawfa 
hard  ! 

The  native  practitioner  who  carried  out  the  treatment 
I  have  just  described  was  very  doubtful  if  it  would  prove 
successful   for,   although   the   Shawfa   are  skilful   enough 


THE  HEALING   ART   IN  THE  HILLS       193 

in  the  setting  of  ordinary  fractures,  for  which  purpose 
they  often  employ  wooden  splints  shaped  with  an  adze 
to  fit  the  limb,  they  are  ignorant  of  any  means  of  wiring 
together  the  ends  of  a  broken  bone  when  these  tend 
to  separate  as  in  the  knee-cap  which  my  friend  was 
treating. 

He  was  of  opinion,  therefore,  that  his  hammering 
would  prove  to  be  useless,  and  that  his  patient  would 
always  be  lame. 

The  great  majority  of  the  operations  performed  by 
the  surgeons  of  the  Aures  seem  to  be  those  necessitated 
by  injuries  to  bones,  for  the  Shawia  appear  to  be  very 
reluctant  to  interfere  with  the  internal  organs  of  the  body, 
with  the  anatomy  of  which  I  believe  most  of  them  to 
be  but  ill  acquainted. 

Such  small  operations,  however,  as  the  application 
of  cautery,  a  treatment  that  is  used  for  almost  every 
imaginable  complaint,  the  introduction  of  "  setons," 
and  "  cupping,"  or  blood-letting,  they  daily  perform 
in  addition  to  the  more  serious  ones  to  which  I  have 
referred. 

The  last-named  operation,  if  the  term  can  be  applied 
to  so  simple  a  performance,  is  carried  out  by  barbers 
and  other  laymen  as  well  as  by  surgeons,  so  that  the 
traveller,  who  can  witness  it  in  almost  any  village  he 
visits,  must  not  jump  to  the  conclusion  that  he  has 
caught  a  Shawia  practitioner  in  the  act  of  pursuing  his 
calling,  a  mistake  which  I  made  in  the  beginning  of 
my  researches,  and  so  undergo  the  disappointment  which 
will  follow  when  he  discovers  that  the  operation  is 
performed  everywhere  by  laymen,  often  in  the  street, 
with  no  attempt  at  secrecy  whatever. 

"  Cupping "  is  usually  carried  out  by  making  a 
number  of  small  incisions  in  the  back  of  the  patient's 

13 


194     AMONG   THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

neck,  a  small  tin  cup  being  then  pressed  over  these 
incisions  from  which  the  blood  is  induced  to  flow  freely 
into  it  by  means  of  suction,  applied  by  the  mouth  of 
the  doctor  to  a  tube  attached  to  the  cup  for  this  purpose, 
the  tube  being  stopped  up  when  the  flow  has  started  in 
order  to  maintain  something  approaching  a  vacuum 
in  the  cup.  The  extraction  of  teeth  seems  to  be  carried 
out  as  much  or  more  by  the  jewellers  and  smiths  of  the 
mountains  as  by  the  doctors  themselves,  the  forceps 
employed,  not  at  all  unlike  in  principle  the  modern 
instrument  with  which  many  of  us  are  only  too  familiar, 
being  furnished  with  handles  bent  up  at  the  end  to  afford 
a  firmer  grip. 

In  a  country  in  which  chairs  of  any  sort  are  unknown 
in  native  dwellings,  the  dentist,  amateur  or  professional, 
often  carries  out  his  work  in  the  street,  the  patient  sitting 
upon  the  ground,  his  head  between  the  knees  of  the 
torturer  whose  shoulders  sway  to  and  fro  in  the  exertion 
of  loosening  and  removing  some  particularly  obstinate 
stump. 

On  the  whole  the  teeth  of  the  Shawia  are  good,  but 
almost  any  jeweller,  if  asked  whether  he  can  wield  the 
forceps  with  success,  will  produce  for  inspection  a  box 
full  of  ghastly  trophies  of  his  prowess  as  a  dentist,  and 
a  large  number  of  natives  have  applied  to  us  for  a  cure 
for  toothache  in  their  very  natural  reluctance  to  place 
themselves  at  the  mercy  of  the  local  doctor,  jeweller 
or  smith. 

As  regards  the  fees  asked  by  Shawia  surgeons  for  their 
operations,  these  appear  to  vary  considerably  according 
to  the  patient's  capacity  to  pay ;  I  have  known  a  man 
who  has  received  as  much  as  a  couple  of  hundred  francs 
for  an  operation  on  the  head,  and  who  has  asked  another 
patient  to  put  two  francs  in  the  mosque  box  to  mark 


THE  HEALING  ART  IN  THE  HILLS        195 

his  gratitude  for  a  cure,  refusing  for  himself  all  remunera- 
tion for  a  similar  operation  to  the  one  for  which  he  had 
received  the  sum,  so  large  in  his  estimation,  mentioned 
above  from  a  richer  sufferer  ;  indeed  it  would  seem  that 
the  doctors  of  the  Aures,  while  ready  enough  to  accept 
high  fees  from  the  wealthy,  are  extremely  generous  in 
their  treatment  of  the  poor. 

It  must  not  be  imagined  that  surgery  alone  is  practised 
in  the  Aures.  On  the  contrary,  all  the  doctors  I  have  met 
with  have  been  general  practitioners,  carrying  on  the 
medical  as  well  as  the  surgical  side  of  their  profession. 

Possessing  a  very  remarkable  knowledge  of  the  plant 
life  of  their  mountain  land,  they  prepare  the  majority 
of  their  medicines  from  wild  herbs  which  they  seek  among 
the  rocks  or  in  the  gardens  beside  the  streams,  drying 
them  in  the  shade  and  reducing  them  to  powder,  obtain- 
ing extract  from  them  by  pounding  them  when  fresh  in 
a  large  wooden  mortar  with  a  heavy  pestle  of  wood,  or 
even,  in  some  rare  cases,  distilling  them  by  means  of 
a  primitive  "  still,"  of  which  I  was  fortunate  enough 
to   secure   a   specimen. 

Indeed  the  natives  are  of  opinion  that  every  plant 
which  grows  has  its  medicinal  value  if  only  its  correct 
uses  can  be  ascertained ;  the  list,  therefore,  of  local  herbs 
used  by  the  doctors  must  be  very  long  indeed,  while 
such  herbs  as  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  mountains, 
together  with  various  other  material,  of  which  acetate 
of  copper,  sulphur,  asafcetida  and  myrrh  are  examples, 
can  be  secretly  purchased  in  the  tiny  native  shops  of 
the  larger  towns  or  from  dealers  in  dried  medicinal 
herbs  who  can  be  seen  seated  upon  the  ground,  with 
their  wares  spread  out  around  them,  in  the  market 
place  of  many  a  centre  of  commerce  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  hills. 


196    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

It  is  not  my  purpose  here  to  deal  in  any  detail  with 
all  the  various  operations  and  forms  of  treatment 
carried  out  by  the  Shawia  practitioners  of  the  Aures  ; 
I  have  attempted  to  describe  some  of  the  surgery  I  have 
observed  among  them  to  the  History  Section  of  the 
Royal  Society  of  Medicine  in  London,  and  I  hope  some 
day  to  publish  in  full  the  results  of  my  work  among  the 
doctors  in  the  hills,  the  now  very  numerous  notes  upon  the 
practice  of  medicine  and  drugs,  as  well  as  upon  surgery, 
which  we  have  been  lucky  enough  to  acquire  ;  but  the 
reader  may  well  ask  one  question  to  which  I  will 
endeavour  to  supply  an  answer,  "  Whence  is  derived 
the  healing  art  as  practised  in  the  Aures  to-day  ?  " 

By  the  instruments  used  by  the  Shawia  surgeons,  by 
the  drugs  employed  in  their  treatment  of  disease  and, 
especially,  by  the  Arabic  books  to  which  the  natives  from 
time  to  time  refer  in  cases  which  perplex  them,  we  are 
driven  to  the  conclusion  that  the  healing  art  of  eastern 
Algeria  entered  that  country  in  the  wake  of  the  Moham- 
medan religion  ;  that  is  to  say  that  Shawia,  who  embraced 
that  religion  and  undertook  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca, 
which  it  prescribes  for  all  the  faithful  to  whom  the  task 
is  possible,  in  days  gone  by  spent  some  time  in  the  study 
of  medicine  and  surgery  in  such  centres  of  mediaeval 
learning  as  Tunis  or  Cairo  or  even  more  distant  cities 
of  the  Moslem  world,  and  that  they  there  acquired  a 
knowledge  of  thirteenth-century  Arab  medicine  and 
surgery  which  they  have  passed  on  by  oral  tradition  from 
father  to  son  in  their  families  until  it  has  been  found  in 
existence,  little  modified  by  the  lapse  of  time,  in  the  heart 
of  the  Aures  to-day.  These  families  whose  ancestors 
introduced  the  healing  art  into  the  hills  and  whose  members 
still  follow  the  medical  profession  are,  curiously  perhaps, 
not  regarded  as  holy  or  maraboutic,  nor  arc  they  in  any 


DRUG    SELLER    IN    A    MAEKET. 


DRESSING    A    FINGER    IN    THE    STREET. 


To  face  p.  196. 


THE  HEALING  ART  IN  THE  HILLS        197 

way  to  be  confused  with  the  charlatans,  the  writers  of 
charms  and  the  sorceresses,  whom  we  have  already  found 
to  exist  in  comfort  upon  the  credulity  of  a  naturally 
superstitious  race. 

Nevertheless,  with  medicine  in  a  state  similar  to  that 
existing  in  parts  of  Europe  seven  centuries  ago,  it  is  not 
surprising  to  find  that  professional  doctors  employ  certain 
forms  of  treatment  which  are  obviously  magical  in  origin, 
and  that  magicians  recommend  others  which  may  even 
reasonably  be  expected  to  produce  the  desired  results. 
Thus  a  well-known  Shawia  surgeon  has  informed  me  that 
one  eye  of  the  owl  is  permanently  wakeful  while  the  other 
eye  is  sleepy. 

In  order  to  ascertain  which  is  the  wakeful  eye  the  two 
are  placed  in  a  bowl  of  water,  whereupon  the  sleepy 
one  sinks  to  the  bottom,  leaving  the  wakeful  eye  afloat 
upon  the  surface. 

The  latter,  my  Shawia  friend  asserts,  is  a  valuable 
charm  to  be  worn  around  the  neck  by  persons  of  a  sleepy 
disposition,  while  the  sleepy  eye  should  be  so  worn  by 
those  who  suffer  from  insomnia. 

Further  examples  of  the  magical  value  of  sundry 
materials  employed  by  professional  doctors  are  to  be 
found  in  the  use  of  earth  as  a  dressing  because  "  as 
we  are  sprung  from  the  earth  it  must,  of  necessity,  be 
good  for  us,"  and  the  wearing  of  the  paw  of  a  porcupine 
by  young  mothers  as  a  preventative  against  soreness 
of  the  breast,  a  practice  which  is  recommended  even 
by  doctors  who  enjoy  a  wide  reputation  for  their  surgical 
and  medical  skill. 

On  the  other  hand  a  magician,  possessed  of  no  know- 
ledge of  practical  medicine  whatever,  once  explained 
to  me  as  follows,  the  cause  of  epidemics  of  disease  and 
the  measures  he  recommends  to  combat  them. 


198    AMONG  THE   HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

The  epidemics  are  caused  by  whole  armies  of  invisible 
"  jenoun,"  or  demons,  who,  invading  a  village  in  their 
thousands,  strike  down  the  inhabitants,  spreading  whole- 
sale slaughter  as  they  go. 

The  only  wise  course  for  the  people  to  follow,  according 
to  the  magician,  is  to  abandon  the  unequal  struggle 
against  their  supernatural  foes  and  to  flee  to  the  pine 
woods  of  the  higher  slopes  of  the  Aures,  whither  the 
"  jenoun  "  will  not  dare  to  pursue  them  owing  to  their 
supposed  dread  of  the  smell  of  the  pine  tree,  small  pieces 
of  which  are  often  worn  as  charms  against  illness  by 
the  Shawia. 

It  would  seem  from  these  instances  that  the  magician 
is  sometimes  as  scientific  in  the  remedies  he  recommends 
as  the  real  doctors  are  occasionally  the  reverse,  indeed 
among  a  people  still  in  a  primitive  state  of  culture  the 
exact  border  line  between  medicine  and  magic  is  almost 
impossible  to  define,  for  who,  bearing  in  mind  that  faith- 
healing  has  a  powerful  hold  upon  many  people  in  com- 
munities such  as  our  own,  will  care  to  deny  that  even 
the  wearing  of  written  amulets,  so  implicitly  believed 
in  by  the  natives,  may  produce  a  beneficial  effect  in 
some  cases  among  the  Shawia  ? 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  DJEBEL  CHERCHAR 


BISKRA — A    DESERT    JOURNEY — OUR    RECEPTION    AT    ZERIBET    EL    WED 

HORSES — KHANGA  SIDI  NADJI — A  MODEL  VILLAGE — JOURNEY  TO 
OULDJA — A  PREHISTORIC  OLIVE  PRESS — DOMESTIC  LIFE  AMONG  THE 
SHAWIA — CHEBLA — VISIT  TO  KHEIRANE — THE  CLIFF  VILLAGE  OF 
DJELLAL — WE  FINISH  OUR  WORK  AT  TABERDGA — A  ROAD  THROUGH 
THE   MOUNTAINS. 


NOW  that  we  had  traversed  the  western  and  central 
valleys  of  the  Aures,  in  order  to  complete,  as  far  as 
possible,  our  survey  of  the  land  of  the  Shawia  the  necessity 
arose  to  undertake  a  journey  from  south  to  north  up  the 
valleys  beneath  the  great  ridge  of  the  Djebel  Cherchar, 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  forms  the  eastern  bastion  of  the 
massif,  so  that  we  might  compare  the  arts  and  crafts, 
manners  and  customs  of  their  inhabitants  with  those  we 
had  already  attempted  to  examine  further  to  the  west. 

In  order  to  reach  a  suitable  starting-point  at  the  foot 
of  the  hills  for  such  an  expedition,  we  found  ourselves 
obliged  to  travel  some  fifty  miles  or  more  over  the  desert 
to  the  east  of  Biskra,  to  which  centre,  therefore,  we 
descended  by  train  to  prepare  for  the  journey  which  lay 
before  us. 

During  our  stay  at  Biskra  to  rest  after  our  wanderings 
amid  the  luxuries  of  its  civilization  in  the  glorious  climate 
of  the  spring,  so  delightful  after  the  rapid  changes  of 
temperature  we  had  experienced  in  the  Aures,  we  found 
plenty  to  occupy  our  time. 

199 


200    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

"  The  Queen  of  the  Zibans,"  as  the  place  is  called, 
while  scarcely  a  spot  in  which  to  attempt  a  study  of 
native  life  owing  to  the  mixture  of  races  to  be  found  in 
it,  is  a  centre  to  which  so  many  natives,  Shawia  from  the 
Aures  as  well  as  nomads  from  the  great  desert,  come 
in  to  make  purchases,  that  we  were  continually  encoun- 
tering old  friends  from  remote  camps  and  hamlets  who 
were  always  glad  to  see  us  and  to  supply  us  with  the 
latest  gossip  of  the  little  world  in  which  they  moved. 

Indeed,  we  could  scarcely  walk  a  yard  from  our  hotel 
without  being  carried  off  to  consume  coffee  by  some  one 
whom  we  had  met  in  the  desert  or  the  hills,  so  that  our 
holiday  from  research  work  among  the  natives  really 
resembled  that  of  the  oft-quoted  "  busman,"  but,  never- 
theless, our  surroundings  in  a  centre  of  civilization  proved 
restful  enough. 

After  our  usual  practice  of  turning  in  almost  at  dusk 
in  order  to  save  our  stock  of  candles,  we  took  a  childish 
delight  in  sitting  up  late  at  the  Casino  listening  to  the 
strains  of  an  orchestra,  whose  music  appeared  divine  to 
ears  accustomed  to  the  wailing  of  the  oboe  and  the 
monotonous  beating  of  the  drum  ;  while  to  sit  in  the 
warmth  of  the  early  evening  outside  a  well-appointed  cafe 
and  consume  an  apiritif  to  the  strains  of  a  band  seemed 
to  us  the  very  height  of  luxury ;  and,  even  though  we 
may  prefer  the  glories  of  nature  unrestrained  to  the  finest 
efforts  of  the  gardener,  we  experienced  an  extraordinary 
feeling  of  delight  in  roaming  beneath  the  palms  in  the 
scrupulously  tidy  and  well-ordered  garden  of  the  Chateau 
Landon,  the  neatness  of  which  afforded  such  a  contrast 
to  the  surroundings  we  had  left  behind  us  in  the  hills. 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  attempt  any  description  of 
Biskra.  This  has  been  attempted,  and,  as  far  as  pen 
can  achieve  it,  accomplished  by  so  many  writers  of  guide- 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  DJEBEL  CHERCHAR201 

books  and  travellers,  not  to  mention  a  well-known  author 
of  fiction,  that  my  halting  pen  can  add  nothing  to  their 
word-pictures  of  the  great  oasis  and  its  surroundings, 
indeed,  an  account  of  life  in  a  modern  tourist  resort 
scarcely  falls  within  the  scope  of  a  work  that  aims  at 
nothing  more  than  to  bring  remoter  regions  to  the  notice 
of  the  traveller  and  to  throw  some  light  upon  the  daily 
lives  and  customs  of  natives  unspoiled  by  contact  with 
the  outer  world.  I  will  pass  over,  therefore,  the  incidents 
of  our  various  visits  to  Biskra  and  invite  the  reader  to 
accompany  us  upon  our  journey  in  the  desert  to  Zeribet 
el  Wed,  the  headquarters  of  the  nomad  Arabs  of  the 
Zab  Chergui  district  of  the  Sahara,  whence  we  were  to 
turn  northward  to  the  hills. 

During  our  previous  travels  we  had  become  acquainted 
with  the  Kai'd  of  this  area,  a  descendant  of  the  great 
family  from  Barika  to  which,  as  we  have  seen,  the  people 
of  Menaa  still  pay  tribute  in  their  gratitude  for  the 
foundation  of  their  village,  and  he,  upon  our  meeting 
him  in  Biskra  just  before  our  departure  for  his  country, 
kindly  asked  us  to  stay  with  him  at  Zeribet  before  going 
up  into  the  mountains,  and  offered  to  send  us  from  his 
own  oasis  the  couple  of  camels  we  should  require  for 
our  baggage,  thus  relieving  us  of  the  necessity  for 
searching  for  a  comparatively  reasonable  camel  owner 
within  reach  of  the  hotels  of  Biskra,  a  search  to  which 
that  for  a  needle  in  a  haystack  would  seem  simple  by 
comparison.  Upon  the  morning  fixed  for  our  departure, 
therefore,  the  camels  duly  arrived  at  the  time  appointed 
(a  fact  which  is  not  so  common  as  to  pass  unnoticed  by 
the  traveller,  and  which  showed  that  animals  ordered 
by  a  chief  are  more  to  be  relied  upon  than  some  others), 
and,  having  superintended  their  loading,  we  sent  them 
on  to  the  oasis  of  Sidi  Okba  in  the  charge  of  a  mounted 


202     AMONG  THE   HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

orderly,  whose  services  the  French  officer  in  command 
of  the  military  district  in  which  Biskra  lies  had  courteously 
placed  at  our  disposal,  with  orders  to  await  our  arrival 
by  diligence  in  the  evening. 

For  Sidi  Okba  lies  but  a  dozen  miles  to  the  south-east 
of  Biskra,  and,  as  we  were  to  spend  the  first  night  of  our 
journey  there,  we  had  succumbed  to  the  temptations  of 
the  fleshpots  of  our  hotel,  and  had  decided  to  commence 
our  travels  by  carriage  in  the  afternoon  in  preference 
to  riding  beside  slow-moving  camels — a  monotonous 
experience,  as  many  hundreds  of  miles  of  desert  travelling 
had  long  since  taught  me,  and  one  to  be  avoided  when 
possible. 

An  hour  or  two  before  sundown,  therefore,  we  drew  up 
outside  a  gateway  in  one  of  Sidi  Okba's  narrow  sandy 
lanes,  after  rattling  over  the  road  from  Biskra  in  the 
ramshackle  coach  which  carries  the  mail,  and  alighted 
at  the  house  of  the  sheikh,  himself  absent  at  Biskra, 
who  had  been  requested  by  the  French  authorities  to 
provide  us  with  accommodation  for  the  night. 

Finding  that  a  room  equipped  with  European  furniture 
had  been  got  ready  for  us,  and  that  supper  was  in  course 
of  preparation,  we  had  nothing  to  do  for  ourselves.  We 
accordingly  set  off  in  company  of  one  of  the  elders  of  the 
village  council  to  renew  our  acquaintance  with  the  place 
formed  many  years  ago,  and  to  pay  a  visit,  together  with 
my  customary  mite,  to  the  tomb  of  the  warrior  saint  of 
Islam,  Sidi  Okba  ben  Nan,  the  first  Arab  invader  of  the 
Barbary  States,  who,  slain  by  the  warlike  Berbers  of  the 
Aures,  sleeps  his  last  sleep  beneath  a  "  kouba  "  attached 
to  the  mosque  which  bears  his  name,  a  mosque  more 
visited  by  Europeans,  perhaps,  than  any  other  in  Algeria, 
for  few  tourists  are  allowed  to  stay  for  any  time  at 
Biskra  without  being  taken  to  inspect  it.     The  mosque 


THE  VALLFA7S  OF  THE  D.7EBEL  CHERCHAR  203 

itself,  though  larger  and  better  built  than  is  usually 
the  case  in  Saharan  places  of  worship,  has  little  of  real 
interest,  other  than  its  historical  associations,  to  offer 
to  any  one  who  has  already  visited  a  number  of  such 
buildings,  though  the  view  from  its  minaret  over  vast 
stretches  of  the  desert  with  a  magnificent  panorama  of 
the  Aur£s  to  the  north  glowing  beneath  the  rays  of  the 
setting  sun,  kept  us  engrossed  in  the  occupation  of  picking 
out  many  familiar  peaks  and  landmarks  until  the 
approach  of  the  short  twilight  warned  us  that  the  time 
had  arrived  to  return  to  our  room  in  the  sheikh's  house 
to  rest,  in  view  of  an  early  start  upon  the  morrow. 

Leaving  Sidi  Okba  behind  us  we  rode  eastward  over 
a  level  desert  of  dry  earth,  in  which  sand  was  practically 
non-existent,  to  the  small  oasis  of  Ai'n  Naga,  ten  or  twelve 
miles  distant,  the  glorious  views  of  the  Aures  always 
visible  to  the  north,  while  the  flat  landscape  of  the 
desert  around  shimmered  in  the  glare  of  a  powerful  sun 
before  us  and  to  the  south.  The  weather  now,  at  the 
end  of  March,  was  distinctly  warm  for  travelling  in  the 
open  plains,  where  no  shade  of  any  sort  is  obtainable 
between  the  oases  ;  we  were  glad  enough,  therefore,  of 
the  protection  afforded  by  a  couple  of  cheap  topees, 
bought  in  Biskra,  as  we  moved  over  the  arid  wastes  of 
the  Sahara  towards  the  few  palms  of  Ai'n  Naga,  a  mere 
cluster  of  huts  amid  some  extremely  unfertile  looking 
gardens,  above  which  but  an  insignificant  number  of 
date-palms  reared  their  heads  skyward,  their  long 
branch-like  leaves  motionless  in  the  quiet  of  the  early 
afternoon  as  we  rode  up  to  the  "  bordj  "  which  had  been 
built  among  them  for  the  convenience  of  passing  officers. 

Here,  although  there  is  no  resident  guardian  who  can 
prepare  a  meal  for  the  wayfarer,  we  found  that  ample 
provision  had  been  made  for  us  by  the  Kaid  of  Zeribet, 


204     AMONG   THE   HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

who  had  arrived  before  us  to  spend  a  few  days  in  the 
oasis  which  lay  within  his  borders,  and  had  arranged  for 
a  meal  to  be  sent  in  from  some  hut  or  tent  close  by,  so 
that  we  had  only  to  wander  about  Ain  Naga  for  an  hour 
or  two,  ample  time  in  which  to  become  thoroughly  familiar 
with  all  the  attractions  of  the  place,  and  then  turn  into 
our  blankets  spread  upon  the  floor  of  an  upper  room 
in  a  solid  well-constructed  building. 

The  third  and  last  stage  of  our  march  to  Zeribet  el 
Wed  was  considerably  longer  than  either  of  the  preceding 
days'  journeys,  but  the  heat  of  the  day  was  tempered 
by  a  cool  breeze  and  we  rode  a  couple  of  willing  mules, 
who  got  over  the  ground  at  a  sufficient  pace  to  bring  us 
to  our  destination  well  before  darkness  set  in,  so  that 
we  suffered  no  discomforts  whatever  on  the  way.  Indeed, 
this  desert  journey  compared  most  favourably  with 
many  of  the  long  days  of  marching,  with  nothing  in 
view  save  the  dreary  level  of  the  horizon,  which  I  had 
endured  in  the  far  south  in  years  gone  by,  for  here,  but 
a  few  miles  south  of  the  Aures,  a  fine  panorama  of  moun- 
tain scenery,  of  barren  ruddy  rocks  reflecting  in  many 
wonderful  shades  the  rays  of  the  scorching  sun,  was 
always  in  view  as  we  travelled,  and  a  mirage,  invisible 
scarcely  for  a  moment,  produced  the  effect  of  sheets  of 
glassy  water  a  few  hundreds  of  yards  before  us,  which, 
ever  receding  as  we  advanced,  kept  up  their  illusion 
until,  coming  to  the  top  of  some  imperceptibly  rising 
ground,  we  descried  the  mud  huts  of  Zeribet  el  Wed 
and  the  summits  of  its  palm  trees  just  showing  above  the 
banks  of  the  stream  which  waters  its  oasis.  Of  native 
life  we  had  seen  practically  nothing  by  the  way. 

A  few  nomad  women  drawing  water  at  a  well  a  little 
distance  from  the  track,  whom  we  had  asked  to  supply 
our  animals  with  a  drink,  rewarding  them  with  a  handful 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  DJEBEL  CHERCHAR  205 

of  matches  and  such  information  as  they  demanded  as 
to  our  names,  ages,  number  of  children,  their  sexes,  ages, 
etc.,  in  short,  the  usual  "  particulars  "  required  by- 
native  women  of  a  European  stranger,  and  sundry 
nomad  families,  passing  with  their  worldly  possessions 
carried  upon  their  slow-moving  camels,  were  the  only 
human  beings  we  encountered  between  the  oases  at  which 
we  had  halted  for  the  night. 

At  Zeribet,  however,  we  were  to  see  and,  in  turn,  be 
inspected  by  a  host  of  the  Arabs  of  the  plains. 

Hospitably  entertained  by  the  Raid's  cousin  in  the 
absence  of  our  host  himself,  we  were  lodged  in  apart- 
ments in  the  chief's  house,  which  might  well  have  been 
removed  in  their  entirety  from  a  neatly  furnished  hotel, 
and  so  long  as  we  remained  beneath  the  roof  of  the 
great  man  his  official  uniformed  orderlies,  of  whom  he 
employed  about  half  a  dozen,  would  allow  no  intrusion 
upon  our  privacy,  but  the  moment  we  proceeded  to 
wander  about  the  village  unattended  by  an  orderly  we 
were  almost  literally  mobbed.  It  appears  that  travellers, 
other  than  passing  officials,  do  not  frequent  Zeribet,  and 
that  the  vast  majority  of  its  women-folk,  the  greater 
number  of  whom  pass  their  lives  in  the  tents  of  the 
Sahara,  and  pay  but  an  occasional  visit  to  the  oasis,  had 
never  previously  beheld  a  white  woman  ;  their  curiosity, 
therefore,  quite  got  the  better  of  them,  and,  being  nomads 
and  so  freer  from  restraint  than  their  sisters  of  the  towns, 
of  Arab  race  though  they  were,  they  crowded  round  us 
directly  we  appeared  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  my  wife. 

Young  and  old,  they  rushed  to  look  at  her,  even 
elderly  matrons  literally  fighting  their  way  through  the 
throng,  hurling  aside  boys  and  girls  who  impeded  their 
way  in  their  eagerness  to  obtain  a  closer  view,  and  ques- 
tioning  those   who   had   already   inspected   her   as   they 


206    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

passed,  the  motley  crowd,  in  which  a  number  of  men 
was  added  to  the  women  and  the  children,  arousing  such 
a  commotion  in  the  lanes  inches  deep  in  sand  that  we 
momentarily  expected  suffocation. 

Eventually  one  of  the  women  would  contrive  to  get 
my  wife  into  her  house,  whither  I  usually  accompanied 
her,  for  I  was  allowed  into  an  extraordinary  number  of 
dwellings,  considering  that  Zeribet  is  an  Arab  village, 
whereupon  all  her  relations  and  friends  as  well,  I  should 
imagine,  as  even  her  most  distant  "  bowing  acquain- 
tances "  would  troop  in  after  us  to  watch  our  hostess 
proudly  doing  the  honours  of  her  home  to  a  "  Roumiya," 
a  European  woman,  who  had  been  so  unexpectedly 
called  upon  to  play  a  very  good  imitation  of  the  part  of 
the  freak  in  a  circus  procession. 

This  sort  of  reception,  which  was  accorded  to  us  every 
time  we  wandered  around  the  village,  was  by  no  means 
such  as  we  had  expected  in  an  oasis  like  Zeribet,  which 
lies  not  more  than  fifty  miles  from  Biskra,  and  could 
even  be  reached  in  a  car,  for  the  track  leading  to  it  lies, 
as  we  have  seen,  over  desert  devoid  of  sand,  though  the 
innumerable  little  mounds,  but  a  few  inches  high,  with 
which  the  ground  is  covered  would  necessitate  careful 
driving,  and  render  the  journey  by  no  means  luxurious. 
Cars,  however,  have  certainly  sometimes  reached  the  oasis 
conveying  military  officers  upon  their  tours  of  duty. 

Zeribet  el  Wed,  or  "  The  enclosure  of  the  river,"  lies 
a  few  hundred  yards  to  the  north-west  of  the  junction 
of  two  streams  which  flow  into  the  desert  from  the  hills  ; 
the  Wed  Guechtan  from  the  eastern  side  of  Amar 
Khraddou,  and  the  Wed  el  Arab,  which,  flowing  through 
the  valley  upon  the  western  side  of  the  Djcbel  Cherchar, 
emerges  from  the  hills  through  the  defile  of  Khanga  Sidi 
Nadji,  a  dozen  miles  to  the  north. 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  DJEBEL  CHERCHAR  207 

In  the  depression  formed  by  these  streams  are  situated 
the  date-groves  of  Zeribet,  their  heads  scarcely  appearing 
above  the  level  of  the  surrounding  desert  to  the  traveller 
approaching  from  the  west.  While  a  certain  amount  of 
irrigation  is  carried  out  in  the  gardens  by  means  of  the 
system  of  "  seggias  "  employed  in  the  hills,  the  presence 
of  a  large  number  of  shallow  wells  among  them  enables 
another  method  to  be  used,  namely  watering  by  means 
of  the  "  shadoof,"  a  method  extremely  common  in  the 
Sahara,  but  not  to  be  found  in  the  mountain  districts 
I  have  already  described.  The  "shadoof"  consists  in 
a  pillar  of  brick  or  palm-trunk,  standing  upright  beside 
the  well,  to  the  top  of  which  a  long  pole  is  so  attached 
that  its  upper  end  can  be  pulled  down  to  the  mouth  of 
the  well  and,  by  means  of  a  weight  consisting  of  a  large 
stone  attached  to  its  shorter  lower  end,  raised  automatic- 
ally to  its  vertical  position  again  when  the  pressure  which 
has  so  pulled  it  down  is  relaxed. 

The  bucket  of  goatskin  is  attached  by  a  cord  to  the 
top  of  the  pole,  and  is  pulled  down  to  lower  it  into  the 
well,  the  weight  of  the  stone  raising  the  pole,  and  so 
drawing  the  bucket  to  the  surface,  when  the  native  who 
is  using  the  contrivance  allows  it  to  do  so  by  relaxing 
his  hold  on  the  cord. 

If  the  water  so  drawn  up  is  intended  for  the  irrigation 
of  the  garden  it  is  at  once  poured  from  the  bucket  into 
a  small  trough,  whence  miniature  canals,  or  "  seggias," 
convey  it  to  the  part  it  is  desired  to  flood.  The  village 
of  Zeribet  el  Wed  requires  no  careful  description  here. 

Its  houses  of  mud  brick,  its  narrow  winding  lanes,  its 
cafes,  and  its  tiny  native  shops,  to  which  the  nomads  of 
the  neighbouring  camps  send  in  for  their  simple  require- 
ments, are  all  such  as  can  be  found  in  any  oasis  of  the 
northern  desert,  for  example,  El  Kantara,  Djemora,  or 


208    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

Branis,  and,  indeed,  its  inhabitants  should  not  properly 
be  studied  at  Zeribet,  but  rather  in  their  real  homes, 
the  tents  of  the  Sahara ;  for  Zeribet,  like  Djemora,  is 
the  headquarters  of  a  wandering  people,  and  not  the 
residence  of  any  considerable  number  of  Arabs. 

The  district  of  the  Zab  Chergui,  of  which  Zeribet  is 
the  chief  oasis,  is  noted  for  its  horses,  large  numbers  of 
the  best  animals  in  the  northern  desert  having  been 
bred  in  the  camps  around. 

The  French,  therefore,  are  in  the  habit  of  sending  two 
or  three  valuable  stallions  there  for  a  part  of  the  year 
to  encourage  the  Arabs  in  their  taste  for  horse-breeding, 
with  the  result  that  some  very  fine  animals  indeed  are 
sometimes  to  be  seen  in  the  hands  of  the  natives,  the 
pedigrees  of  which  the  owners  hold  in  writing  and  proudly 
display  to  any  one  who  delights  them  by  taking  an 
interest  in  their  horses. 

Our  stay  at  Zeribet  el  Wed  beneath  the  hospitable 
roof  of  its  Kaid,  who,  with  the  help  of  his  "  Khalifa," 
or  second-in-command,  his  cousin,  entertained  us  most 
royally,  was  thoroughly  enjoyable,  but  we  were  already 
nearing  the  end  of  March,  and  we  had  a  considerable 
journey  to  perform  through  the  region  of  the  Djebel 
Cherchar  before  the  weather  should  become  unbearable 
in  the  lower  country,  and  unpleasantly  hot  even  on  the 
plateau  to  the  north  of  the  Aures,  we  therefore  moved 
on  after  several  days  at  Zeribet  to  begin  once  more  our 
work  among  the  Berbers. 

We  rode  out  from  Zeribet  upon  our  short  journey  to 
Khanga  Sidi  Nadji,  a  large  oasis  at  the  foot  of  the  moun- 
tains, in  the  early  afternoon,  beneath  a  sun  which  made 
us  rejoice  more  than  ever  in  our  newly-acquired  topees, 
and  following,  more  or  less  closely,  the  course  of  the 
Wed  cl  Arab  wc  headed  for  the  small    oasis   of   Liana, 


L^XU 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  DJEBEL  CHERCHAR  209 

just  before  reaching  which  we  passed  upon  our  right 
the  tiny  hamlet  of  Bades,  built  upon  a  little  mound  in 
the  level  desert,  a  mound  said  to  consist  of  the  ruins  of 
a  former  town,  for,  according  to  El  Bekri,  the  mediaeval 
Arab  geographer,  in  the  eleventh  century  Bades  was  a 
place  of  considerable  importance  and  boasted  of  two 
fortresses. 

At  Liana  we  halted  for  a  few  minutes  to  partake  of 
coffee  in  the  house  of  its  sheikh,  and  we  were  joined  by 
a  uniformed  orderly  from  the  Kai'd  of  Khanga  Sidi  Nadji, 
into  whose  area  we  had  now  passed,  who  was  to  escort 
us  to  the  home  of  his  master. 

After  leaving  Liana  we  forded  the  Wed  el  Arab,  and 
continued  along  its  left  or  eastern  bank  until  we  joined 
an  excellent  track,  quite  passable  at  this  point  by  wheeled 
traffic,  leading  us  to  the  oasis  of  Khanga  at  the  point 
at  which  it  turned  to  the  north-east  towards  the  eastern 
valley  beneath  the  Djebel  Cherchar ;  a  track  to  which 
I  shall  have  to  refer  at  end  of  this  chapter. 

Before  reaching  Khanga  we  entered  a  valley  at  the 
foot  of  the  hills  in  which  the  oasis  lies,  and  finally  emerged 
from  its  palm  groves  to  obtain  a  beautiful  view  of  the 
village  itself,  lying  at  the  foot  of  a  steep  hillside  on  the 
eastern  bank  of  the  Wed  el  Arab,  its  cluster  of  houses 
overlooked  by  the  tall  well-built  minaret  of  a  mosque. 
Even  as  we  rode  for  the  first  time  through  its  winding 
streets  towards  the  residence  of  its  chief  we  could  not 
fail  to  notice  an  air  of  cleanliness  and  absence  of  decay, 
which  seemed  to  mark  it  as  a  place  apart  from  any  Algerian 
village  we  had  seen,  and,  as  we  pulled  up  in  a  large  open 
square  near  the  Ka'id's  house  and  were  received  by  the 
chief  himself,  surrounded  by  well-dressed  members  of 
his  family,  we  realized  that  here  at  Khanga  we  had  found 
no  ordinary  settlement  of  the  desert  and  the  hills. 

14 


210    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

The  Ka'id  received  us  with  the  quiet  hospitality  of 
manner  and  a  dignity  belonging  to  a  bygone  age,  such 
as  we  had  come  to  expect  from  a  member  of  one  of  the 
ancient  families  of  Algeria,  and  conducted  us  to  a  delightful 
three-roomed  dwelling,  furnished  in  the  European  style 
with  everything  we  could  wish  for,  even  for  the  longest 
of  visits,  a  house  used  by  the  Administrator  of  the 
district  in  the  cool  weather,  which  we  approached  through 
a  small  but  charming  garden,  beneath  whose  palms  we 
at  once  noticed  the  rare  luxury  of  flowers,  and  around 
which  a  high  wall  of  mud  brick  safeguarded  our  privacy 
from  the  well-meant  but  sometimes  wearisome  attentions 
of  inquisitive  natives.     Here,  indeed,  we  were  in  luxury  ! 

A  delightful  climate,  not  yet  too  hot  to  be  pleasant,  a 
charming  residence,  and  a  beautiful  garden  in  which  the 
sound  of  running  water  from  a  "  seggia  "  almost  banished 
from  our  recollection  the  very  existence  of  a  desert,  the 
quiet  peace  of  the  whole  atmosphere  of  the  place  caused 
us  first  to  wonder  whether  or  not  we  were  in  the  land 
of  dreams,  and  then,  as  we  thought  of  the  cold  of  the 
high  passes,  the  glare  of  the  Sahara,  the  draughts  and 
the  fleas  of  remote  Shawia  hamlets,  to  ask  one  another 
if  we  could  ever  bring  ourselves  to  leave  the  place  and 
wander  again  in  the  mountains  ! 

The  whole  of  our  stay  at  Khanga  Sidi  Nadji  consisted 
of  one  great  round  of  entertainment,  for  not  only  the 
Ka'id  of  the  place,  but  also  his  cousin,  the  Kai'd  of  Ouldja, 
whose  territory  we  were  soon  to  visit,  inhabited  the 
village,  as  did  a  number  of  their  grown-up  sons  and 
nephews,  members  of  the  great  and  respected  Arab  family 
of  Bel  Hacine,  each  of  whom  vied  with  his  relations  in 
the  task  of  entertaining  us  and  showing  us  everything 
of  interest  they  could  think  of. 

Although   the   village   of  Khanga   Sidi   Nadji   consists 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  DJEBEL  CHERCHAR  211 

only  of  a  number  of  mud-brick  houses  amid  its  groves 
of  twenty  thousand  palms,  it  seems  well  deserving  of 
more  than  passing  notice,  for  it  is  a  fine  example  of  a 
prosperous  settlement,  founded,  enlarged,  and  almost 
entirely  maintained  by  the  great  family  which  has  held 
sway  over  it  for  centuries  gone  by,  a  member  of  which 
is  its  Kai'd  to-day. 

Surrounded  by  a  wall,  in  reality  consisting  mainly  of 
the  continuous  outer  walls  of  some  of  its  houses  and 
gardens,  the  village  can  be  entered  by  four  gateways, 
situated  one  at  each  point  of  the  compass,  of  which  the 
great  wooden  doors  are  closed  by  night.  The  streets, 
narrow  and  tortuous,  but  cleaner  than  those  of  any  other 
native  village  I  am  acquainted  with,  lie  between  rows  of 
dwellings,  most  of  them  built  of  mud  brick,  among  which 
a  certain  amount  of  stone  work  is  to  be  found,  especially 
in  the  lower  floors  of  the  houses,  most  of  which  boast 
an  upper  story,  the  stones  being  as  a  rule  very  neatly 
trimmed. 

The  general  impression  produced  by  the  houses  is  that 
such  care  had  been  expended  upon  their  upkeep  that  the 
old  are  scarcely  distinguishable  from  the  new,  a  state  of 
things  which  could  not  exist  for  a  moment  in  an  Algerian 
community  in  which  some  influential  chief  was  not 
constantly  in  residence,  taking  a  personal  pride  in  the 
maintenance  of  his  village,  and  insisting  upon,  or  sub- 
scribing to,  its  necessary  repairs. 

In  the  heart  of  the  village  are  to  be  found  the  residences 
of  the  Kaids  of  Khanga  and  of  Ouldja,  with  those  of 
their  relations,  large  well-built  structures  of  mud  brick, 
the  house  of  the  former  chief  lying  next  door  to  the 
mosque,  with  which  it  is  connected  by  cloisters,  the  arches 
of  which  are  of  a  solidity  rarely  to  be  found  in  the  desert, 
and   quite   unknown   in   the   hills.     The   history   of  this 


212    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

mosque  and,  indeed,  that  of  the  whole  village  for  its 
three  centuries  of  existence  is  simply  that  of  the  Bel 
Hacine  family,  which  history  the  existing  Kai'd  never 
tired  of  discussing  with  us,  for,  proud  as  he  is  of  his  ancient 
lineage,  he  was  most  anxious  that  we  should  learn  and 
appreciate  all  that  his  ancestors,  whose  "  tree  "  he  wrote 
out  for  us,  had  done  for  the  worldly  as  well  as  for  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  the  place. 

The  village  having  been  founded  some  three  hundred 
years  ago  by  the  Bel  Hacines,  and  named  after  Sidi  Nadji, 
one  of  their  ancestors  (the  word  "  Khanga  "  signifying 
"  gorge "),  its  existing  mosque  was  erected  at  a  later 
date  by  craftsmen  from  Tunis,  with  which  city  the  family 
had  some  connection,  being  friendly  with  its  Bey.  The 
employment  of  Tunisian  architects  and  builders  has 
resulted  in  the  construction  of  a  mosque  which  is  superior 
in  beauty  and  solidity  to  any  other  I  have  seen  in  south- 
eastern Algeria.  Its  arches  are  evenly  and  truly  built, 
its  doors  are  neatly  carved,  and  its  cloisters,  already  re- 
ferred to,  built  of  small  bricks,  though  of  no  great  size, 
appeared  to  be  representative  of  an  architecture  much 
in  advance  of  that  usually  to  be  found  in  the  Sahara. 

The  family  mausoleum  is  situated  beneath  a  dome 
in  a  building  opening  out  from  the  main  hall  or  chapel 
of  the  mosque,  and  in  it  repose  all  members  of  the  Bel 
Hacine  clan,  women  as  well  as  men,  who  have  passed  away 
since  its  construction. 

Texts  or  mural  tablets,  their  characters  executed  in 
relief,  are  to  be  seen  over  each  of  the  main  doorways, 
a  similar  tablet  containing  a  message  from  a  former  Bey 
of  Tunis,  who  had  visited  Khanga,  being  displayed  upon 
the  wall  inside  the  mosque.  In  addition  to  maintaining 
the  usual  officials  of  a  Mohammedan  place  of  worship, 
the  Bel  Hacines  employ  a  teacher  of  religion  and  law  for 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  DJEBEL  CHERCHAR  213 

the  instruction  of  those  who  would  study  there,  and  have 
provided  a  library  of  works  for  use  in  this  "  zawia,"  for 
the  family  is  maraboutic  as  well  as  old,  and  accordingly 
keeps  up  one  of  those  establishments  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  are  commonly  the  residences  of  the  saintly  families 
of  Algeria.  But,  besides  looking  after  the  spiritual 
well-being  of  their  neighbours  less  plentifully  supplied 
with  this  world's  goods  than  themselves,  the  succeeding 
chieftains  of  the  Bel  Hacine  line  have  made  it  a  point 
of  honour  each  to  add  something  to  the  temporal  pros- 
perity of  the  village  or  its  oasis  ;  thus  some  have  con- 
structed new  "  seggias  "  to  bring  more  land  under  culti- 
vation by  means  of  the  waters  of  the  Wed  el  Arab,  one 
of  the  most  considerable  rivers  of  the  hills,  others  have 
planted  extensive  gardens,  while  all  appear  to  have  carried 
on  the  family  tradition  of  philanthropy,  not  perhaps 
quite  untempered  with  profit  to  themselves,  from  genera- 
tion to  generation  in  the  past.  As  the  oasis  grew  larger 
and  the  wealth  of  the  village  increased,  it  was  found 
necessary,  in  the  days  before  the  arrival  of  the  French, 
to  provide  some  means  of  defence  against  any  jealous 
rivals  of  its  ruling  family,  or  the  "  goums  "  of  the  maraud- 
ing nomad  tribes  of  the  Sahara.  A  fort  was,  therefore, 
erected  on  the  crest  of  the  ridge  overlooking  the  oasis 
from  the  east,  its  ruins  clearly  indicating  that  Tunisian 
builders,  such  as  had  constructed  the  mosque,  had  been 
employed  upon  the  task.  This  stronghold  of  very  solid 
brick,  entered  by  one  arched  gateway  from  the  south, 
offered  shelter  in  its  courtyard  to  the  ordinary  inhabitants 
of  the  village,  while  it  afforded  accommodation,  in  the 
shape  of  rooms  in  an  inner  building,  to  the  members  of 
the  saintly  family  which  had  caused  its  construction. 
So  progressive  were  the  Bel  Hacines  at  this  period  of 
their  history  that  they  even  armed  their  fortress  with 


214    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

cannon,  weapons  which,  I  believe,  eventually  caused  the 
destruction  of  the  place,  for  a  Bey  of  Constantine, 
under  whom  the  Ka'ids  of  the  country  nominally  held 
sway,  when  upon  a  visit  to  Khanga  was  so  impressed  by 
the  strength  and  armament  of  its  defences  that  by  political 
persuasion,  rather  than  by  force,  he  contrived  to  bring 
about  their  demolition,  fearful,  no  doubt,  of  the  conse- 
quences to  his  own  authority  should  he  permit  his 
subordinates  to  indulge  in  the  possession  of  fortresses 
equipped  with  guns.  It  was  a  genuine  pleasure  to  us 
to  wander  around  the  oases  of  Khanga,  its  village,  and 
its  mosque,  accompanied  by  the  Kai'd,  listening  to  his 
description  of  the  constructive  policy  of  his  ancestors, 
observing  the  various  improvements  he  himself  had  carried 
out  or  intended  to  undertake,  or  standing  by  while  the 
chief  inquired  into  the  welfare  of  some  individual  among 
his  people  for  all  the  world  like  some  old-time  British 
squire  passing  the  time  of  day  with  a  villager,  whose  small 
affairs  would  appear  to  interest  him  as  much  as  all  the 
broad  acres  which  he  owned. 

Until  but  a  few  years  since  the  head  of  the  Bel  Hacine 
family  held  sway  over  the  very  extensive  area  known  as 
the  Djebel  Cherchar,  the  great  ridge  of  which  mountain 
was  included  in  his  dominions,  but  during  some  recent 
changes  in  the  administration  of  the  district  the  authori- 
ties decided  to  divide  the  large  "  kaidat  "  into  four  smaller 
ones,  two  of  which  were  allotted  to  members  of  its  former 
ruler's  clan,  the  Bel  Hacincs  to-day  holding  the  posts 
of  Ka'ids  of  Khanga  Sidi  Nadji  and  of  Ouldja,  a  village 
but  a  few  miles  up  the  course  of  the  Wed  el  Arab  to  the 
north,  whose  chief,  as  we  have  seen,  has  his  residence 
at  Khanga,  the  headquarters  of  his  cousin. 

When  the  time  approached  for  us  to  move  on*  from 
Khanga  Sidi  Nadji,  the  mixed  Arab  and  Berber  population 


"  Mk® 


1 


r%-.** 


>f  * 


■I 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  DJEBEL  CHERCHAR  215 

of  which  rendered  it  by  no  means  so  ideal  for  our  studies 
as  its  comforts,  its  scenery,  and  its  genial  chief  had  made 
it  as  a  resting-place,  we  were  confronted  with  the  choice 
of  two  routes  by  which  we  could  reach  some  of  the 
higher  Berber  hamlets  upon  the  slopes  of  the  Djebel 
Chechar. 

One,  the  excellent  track  by  which  we  had  entered 
Khanga,  leading  beneath  the  easlern  side  of  the  great 
ridge  to  the  Shawfa  villages  of  Djellal  and  Taberdga, 
which  we  desired  to  visit,  though  by  far  the  easier  path 
to  follow,  had  little  else  to  offer  us  by  the  way  ;  the  other, 
following  the  rocky  valley  of  the  Wed  el  Arab  to  Ouldja, 
Chebla,  and  Kheirane  in  the  north,  though  by  no  means 
so  easy,  would  enable  us  to  see  these  three  Berber  hamlets 
before  turning  to  the  east,  climbing  the  ridge  of  the 
Djebel  Cherchar  itself,  and  descending  upon  Djellal  and 
Taberdga  from  the  west.  Naturally  we  selected  the 
latter  as  affording  us  better  opportunities  of  seeing  more 
of  native  life,  and,  as  for  the  difficulty  or  otherwise  of 
a  mountain  path,  so  long  as  a  mule  can  traverse  it  so 
can  the  traveller  upon  its  back  ;  while  if  the  way,  as  is 
very  rarely  the  case,  is  quite  impossible  for  a  mule,  then 
the  wanderer  must  avoid  it  altogether,  or  leave  behind 
him  his  baggage,  his  blankets,  and  his  stores,  for  these 
must  be  transported  upon  mule-back  in  any  case,  without 
which  he  cannot  well  stay  in  the  remote  hamlets  of  the 
hills. 

The  Kaid  of  Ouldja,  learning  of  our  decision,  at  once 
sent  a  message  to  his  village  directing  that  a  house  be 
prepared  for  us,  and,  an  attack  of  rheumatism  preventing 
him  from  accompanying  us  in  person,  he  handed  us  over 
to  his  son,  Si  Abdelhamed,  who  was  to  escort  us  to 
Ouldja  and  do  the  honours  of  the  place  in  his  father's 
stead.    Leaving  our  delightful   house   and  garden,   and 


216    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

the  families  of  our  hosts,  with  whose  women-folk  my  wife 
had  become  friendly,  we  rode  out  of  Khanga  to  descend 
at  once  into  the  bed  of  the  Wed  el  Arab,  accompanied 
by  the  Ka'id  of  Khanga,  mounted  upon  a  magnificent 
black  mare,  and  Si  Abdelhamed,  bestriding  an  equally 
magnificent  chestnut  stallion.  The  northern  limit  of 
his  dominions  lying  at  no  great  distance  up  the  river, 
the  chief  escorted  us  towards  this  point  and  then,  after 
cordially  inviting  us  to  visit  his  area  again,  turned  back, 
leaving  us  to  continue  our  way  to  the  gorge,  from  which 
Khanga  Sidi  Nadji  derives  the  first  part  of  its  name, 
accompanied  by  the  son  of  the  chief  of  Ouldja  and  a 
native  mounted  orderly,  who  had  been  sent  by  the 
Administrator  of  the  region  to  meet  us. 

At  the  beginning  of  our  journey  we  found  it  necessary 
frequently  to  ford  the  Wed  el  Arab,  a  stream  which  held 
a  good  deal  of  water,  but  whose  bed  was  sufficiently  wide 
at  this  point  to  enable  it  to  be  used  as  a  path  without 
danger  of  sudden  flood. 

The  country  between  Khanga  Sidi  Nadji  and  Ouldja 
is  rocky  and  extremely  barren,  the  gorge,  by  no  means 
so  deep  or  imposing  as  the  others  which  we  had  traversed 
farther  to  the  west,  lying  between  hills  of  a  pale  yellow 
tint  upon  which  plant  life  was  reduced  to  a  minimum  ; 
it  was,  therefore,  with  a  feeling  of  some  relief,  after  passing 
through  such  a  country  in  the  glare  of  a  powerful  sun, 
that  we  entered  the  oasis  beside  the  Wed  el  Arab  of  the 
little  stone-built  Shawia  village  of  Tebouia  Hamed  to 
rest  for  a  few  minutes  on  our  way. 

We  were  conducted  by  the  headman  to  a  room  in  which 
to  partake  of  coffee  and  dessert,  where  we  noticed  a  small 
point  connected  with  superstitions  that  we  had  never 
observed  in  the  other  parts  of  the  Aures  we  had  yet 
visited.     Over   the   doors    and    all    the    windows   of  the 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  DJEBEL  CHERCHAR  217 

apartment  were  affixed  little  written  charms,  unprotected 
by  any  covering  of  cloth  or  leather,  the  object  of  which 
was  to  prevent  the  entry  of  scorpions  into  the  room. 

Scorpions  are  said  to  be  very  plentiful  in  the  area  of 
the  Djebel  Cherchar  during  the  summer  months, 
accordingly  we  found  similar  charms  in  every  native 
house  as  we  progressed,  but  the  pests  must  be  at  least 
as  common  farther  to  the  west,  where  the  usual  method 
of  guarding  against  their  bite  consists  merely  in  the 
wearing  of  a  charm  upon  the  person,  certain  scribes  of 
the  Aures  being  belieyed  to  be  capable  of  writing  words 
and  signs  upon  a  certain  kind  of  bone  which,  if  worn, 
will  enable  the  wearer  to  pick  up  by  hand  any  scorpion 
unharmed. 

After  but  a  brief  halt  at  Tebouia  we  rode  on  to  Ouldja, 
our  destination,  where  we  found  that  a  hut  had  been 
prepared  for  us,  carpets  laid  down,  and  a  table  provided, 
the  two  latter  having  been  sent  on  by  the  Ka'id  from 
Khanga  in  the  charge  of  one  of  his  servants,  who  was  to 
cook  for  us  during  our  stay. 

The  village  of  Ouldja,  its  huts  of  untrimmed  stone 
situated  upon  a  low  spur  projecting  into  the  valley  of 
the  Wed  el  Arab  from  its  eastern  side,  was  obviously  of 
true  Shawia  type,  but  its  oasis,  which  lies  beneath  it,  was 
somewhat  different  to  any  we  had  previously  seen,  for 
its  trees  consisted  of  about  equal  numbers  of  date-palms 
and  olive  trees,  growing  in  the  same  gardens,  to  which 
a  number  of  other  fruit  trees  were  added. 

The  olive  trees  were  valuable  enough  to  the  natives 
as  they  enabled  them  to  produce  the  oil  which  is  so 
much  used  in  cooking  in  the  hills,  and  concerning  the 
preparation  of  which  we  gleaned  some  interesting  infor- 
mation. 

In  another  village,  at  Beni  Ferah  to  be  exact,  we  had 


218    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

noticed  a  system  of  bruising  the  olives  in  a  circular  trough 
by  means  of  a  heavy  stone  roller,  which,  drawn  by  a  mule, 
moves  round  and  round  the  trough,  pivoting  upon  a 
revolving  wooden  post  in  the  centre  ;  after  which  the 
bruised  olives  are  boiled  and  placed  in  baskets  beneath 
a  massive  tree-trunk,  one  end  of  which  rests  upon  a  ledge 
in  the  wall  of  the  house,  while  a  heavy  stone  attached  to 
the  other  end  lends  additional  weight  to  the  tree,  so  that 
it  presses  hard  upon  the  baskets  beneath  it,  and  thus 
causes  the  oil  to  exude  from  the  olives.  This  system  has 
been  found  by  eminent  archaeologists  to  have  existed, 
exactly  in  the  state  in  which  we  found  it,  in  the  time  of 
the  Roman  occupation  of  Algeria,  but  here,  at  Ouldja, 
we  discovered  another  system  of  obtaining  oil  which 
must  be  very  much  more  ancient  still,  very  possibly,  it 
would  seem,  dating  back  to  prehistoric  times. 

The  bruising  of  the  olives  is  carried  out  by  the  very 
simple  process  of  moving  a  large  stone  to  and  fro  upon 
them  by  hand,  while,  when  boiled  and  placed  in  their 
baskets,  they  are  laid  upon  one  large  stone,  a  woman 
then  standing  upon  another  slab  of  rock  placed  on  the 
top  of  the  baskets,  her  weight,  as  she  transfers  it  from 
one  foot  to  the  other,  giving  the  pressure  required  to 
cause  the  oil  to  flow.  Up  to  the  present  a  pressure  of 
other  work  has  prevented  our  searching  for  a  parallel 
to  this  system  among  the  industries  of  other  ancient 
peoples,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  such  a  simple 
method  of  obtaining  oil  must  be  of  very  great  antiquity 
indeed,  so  that  we  may  well  presume  that  a  prehistoric 
craft,  which  we  noted  first  at  Ouldja,  exists  to  this  day 
all  over  the  fastnesses  of  the  Djebcl  Cherchar.  During 
our  short  stay  at  Ouldja  we  devoted  our  time,  as  usual, 
to  prying  into  the  native's  concerns,  an  occupation  to 
which  no  one  seemed  in  the  least  to  object,  and  we  found 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  DJEBEL  CHERCHAR  219 

an  opportunity  of  witnessing  a  wedding  in  one  of  the 
very  poorest  cottages,  a  ceremony  which  differed  in  no 
essential  detail  from  others  we  had  seen  at  Beni  Ferah 
and  elsewhere. 

In  the  Djebel  Cherchar,  as  elsewhere  in  the  Aures,  the 
sons  of  wealthy  parents  frequently  marry  at  an  absurdly 
early  age,  a  state  of  single  blessedness  being  looked  upon 
with  disfavour  by  the  Shawia,  and  also  by  their  Arab 
neighbours  ;    but  in  poor  families,  such  as  the  one  whose 
guests  we  were  at  the  wedding  at  Ouldja,  the  bridegroom, 
who  must  be  in  a  position  to  maintain  his  wife,  is  usually 
rather  older.     After  the  wedding  it  is  by  no  means  uncom- 
mon for  the  young  couple  to  take  up  their  abode  in  the 
house   of  the   bridegroom's   father,    in   which   they   are 
provided  with  a  separate  apartment,  the  daughter-in-law 
becoming  the  assistant  of  her  husband's  mother,  turning 
her  hand  to  any  of  the  hundred  and  one  tasks  which  are 
the  daily  lot  of  the  Berber  women,  her  position  in  the 
bosom  of  her  husband's  family  being  rendered  less  pre- 
carious than  it  might  be  in  a  more  civilized  community 
by  the  fact  that  her  mother-in-law  is  only  too  thankful 
for  her  help  in  the  performance  of  such  domestic  duties. 
If,  as  time  goes  on,  no  olive  branches  appear  in  the  family 
then,  indeed,  the  young  wife  may  well  look  forward  to 
the  future  with  dismay,  for  she  will   be  considered  to 
have  failed  in  her  natural  duties  and  may  expect  her 
husband  to  divorce  her  with  no  more  ceremony  than  if 
he  were  getting  rid  of  an  unsatisfactory  mule,  leaving  her 
to  return,  unwanted  and  disgraced,  to  the  home  of  her 
parents,  there  to  earn  her  living  by  her  household  work, 
the  object  of  the  sneers  of  her  more  fortunate  acquain- 
tances.    But  the  arrival  of  a  child,  especially  of  a  son, 
may  reasonably  be  expected  to  give  the  girl  a  new  lease 
of  life  as  the  wife  of  the  man  she  has  married.     The  event 


220    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

itself,  so  easy  as  scarcely  ever  to  require  the  presence  of 
one  of  those  Shawia  doctors,  some  of  whose  operations 
we  have  described,  is  made  the  occasion  of  much  singing, 
dancing,  feasting,  and  other  rejoicing  should  the  child 
be  of  the  male  sex,  but  is  passed  over  in  gloomy  silence 
on  the  part  of  the  husband  and  his  relations  should  a 
daughter  be  born  in  the  household. 

When  old  enough  many  of  the  boys  are  sent  to  school. 
That  is  to  say,  they  squat  in  a  semi-circle  learning,  first, 
the  Arabic  characters  from  little  wooden  boards  (the  last 
vestige,  probably,  of  the  tablets  of  ancient  Rome),  or 
repeating  texts  from  the  Koran  in  chorus  and  at  such  a 
pace  that  evidently  no  meaning  of  the  texts  is  considered 
so  long  as  their  form  is  acquired. 

Education,  even  in  this  most  elementary  form,  is  not 
required  by  the  girls,  whose  time  is  fully  occupied  about 
the  house,  their  father  often  paying  but  little  heed  to 
them  until  they  reach  the  age  at  which  suitors  may  be 
expected  to  seek  their  hands  with  pecuniary  advantage 
to  their  parent. 

The  father,  however,  takes  considerably  more  interest 
in  his  sons.  From  the  age  of  six  onwards  they  will,  by 
watching  him  at  his  various  tasks,  learn  to  help  him  in 
them,  for,  like  the  cannibal  tribes  of  Central  Africa  and 
other  primitive  peoples,  the  Shawia  are  very  forward 
and  promising  when  young,  often,  it  must  be  confessed, 
quite  failing  as  they  grow  up  to  fulfil  this  early  promise 
owing,  no  doubt,  to  the  absence  of  a  good  native  system 
of  education  in  the  remote  hamlets  of  the  hills. 

Although  we  found  so  ancient  a  method  of  olive  pressing 
as  that  which  I  have  described  still  in  use  at  Ouldja,  the 
other  arts  and  crafts  of  its  Berber  people  were  exactly 
similar  to  those  which  we  have  noted  in  the  course  of 
our  journeys  in  the  western  Aurcs ;  we  had  merely  amplified 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  DJEBEL  CHERCHAR  221 

some  of  our  existing  information,  therefore,  when  we 
moved  on  from  the  little  village,  and,  leaving  our  genial 
young  host,  the  Raid's  son,  to  ride  back  to  Khanga, 
started  over  a  hilly  country  towards  the  village  of  Chebla 
in  the  territory  of  the  Kai'd  of  Alieness. 

Avoiding  the  detour  which  would  have  been  caused  by 
following  the  course  of  the  Wed  el  Arab  beside  the  banks 
of  which  Chebla,  like  Ouldja,  lies,  we  rode  over  a  very 
hilly  and  barren  country  in  brilliant  sunshine,  the  glare 
of  which  upon  the  almost  naked  rocks  and  steep  crumbling 
hillsides  was  untempered  by  the  sight  of  vegetation 
which  would  have  provided  a  welcome  rest  to  our  eyes. 

As  we  surmounted  various  hillocks  that  lay  in  our 
path  we  obtained  distant  views  to  the  northward  of  the 
wooded  slopes  of  some  of  the  central  Aures  peaks,  but 
all  around  us  lay  a  country  as  desolate  as  any  part  of 
the  great  desert,  the  ridge  of  the  Djebel  Cherchar,  its 
steep  slopes  rising  wellnigh  sheer  a  few  miles  distant 
to  the  south-east,  wearing  no  such  mantle  of  woodland 
as  the  hills  above  the  Wed  Abdi  or  Menaa.  As  we  came 
in  sight  of  Chebla  we  noticed  beside  a  brook  which  had 
to  be  forded  before  the  village  could  be  reached  a  group 
of  natives,  one  of  whom  was  wearing  the  scarlet  cloak  of 
a  Kai'd,  and  we  learned  that  the  chief  of  the  area  of 
Alieness,  whose  residence  lay  upon  the  other  side  of  the 
Djebel  Cherchar,  had  decided  to  meet  us  at  Chebla  and 
to  make  a  small  tour  of  his  territory  in  our  company. 

Having  gone  through  the  formality  of  greeting  our 
new  host  and  the  elders  of  the  village  council  of  Chebla, 
who  accompanied  him,  we  rode  on  up  the  slope  on  the 
summit  of  which,  overlooking  a  bend  in  the  Wed  el  Arab, 
the  hamlet  of  Chebla  stands.  Here  we  found  that  the 
Kai'd  had  procured  a  fair-sized  house  for  us  to  live  in, 
the  property  of  an  orphan  boy  named  Mohammed  the 


222     AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

Little,  a  cheery  lad  some  twelve  years  old,  who  became 
our  companion  in  our  wanderings  about  the  village. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  Chebla  is  built  upon  the  more 
or  less  level  top  of  a  small  hill,  rather  than  upon  a  narrow 
spur  from  a  mountain,  there  is  no  lack  of  space  in  which 
to  build ;  its  houses,  therefore,  are  larger  and  more 
rambling  than  the  cottages  of  the  Rassira  canon  or  the 
Wed  Abdi,  the  majority  of  them  boasting  a  courtyard 
and  a  separate  apartment  for  such  animals  as  goats, 
etc.,  which  are  accustomed  to  live  indoors  in  the  Aures. 

Five  rooms,  two  of  them  quite  large  and  furnished 
with  a  dais  at  one  end,  as  well  as  a  small  shed  to  serve  as 
a  stable,  opened  out  from  our  courtyard,  one  side  of  the 
yard  itself  being  partly  roofed  over  and  separated  from 
the  rest  of  it  by  a  wall  about  three  feet  high  to  provide 
a  sheltered  corner  in  which  cooking  could  be  carried 
on  without  making  a  fire  in  one  of  the  rooms,  or  in  which 
the  women  could  weave  in  hot  weather. 

The  houses,  built  of  untrimmed  stone,  seemed  none 
of  them  to  possess  an  upper  floor,  and,  as  they  adjoined 
one  another,  their  flat  roof,  devoid  of  any  sort  of  parapet, 
formed  a  platform  by  means  of  which  one  could  walk 
all  round  the  village,  looking  down  upon  the  inhabitants 
in  their  courtyards  below. 

This,  indeed,  is  actually  done,  and  we  ourselves  wandered 
about  the  roofs  to  visit  the  various  friends  we  made  in 
the  place  in  a  manner  which  would  have  scandalized 
an  Arab,  could  one  have  seen  us,  and  probably  caused 
him  to  make  many  totally  unjust  remarks  about  the 
virtue  of  the  Shawia  women  and  the,  to  him,  outrageous 
conduct  of  their  husbands  in  allowing  such  behaviour. 

The  Berbers,  as  we  have  seen,  are  far  less  strict  in  their 
treatment  of  their  women  than  the  Arabs,  yet  I  have 
never  seen  the  housetops  used  as  a  sort  of  promenade 


OUR   HOUSE    AT   CHEBLA. 


To  face  p.  223. 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  DJEBEL  CHERCHAR  223 

in  any  of  the  other  districts  of  the  Aures.  Upon  the 
roof  of  our  house,  as  upon  those  of  most  of  its  neighbours, 
stood  a  line  of  beehives,  covered  with  pieces  of  halfa-grass 
matting,  and  protected  from  the  effects  of  the  "  evil- 
eye  "  by  a  gleaming  white  jawbone  of  a  mule  suspended 
from  the  roof  below  them,  for  the  superstitions  of  the 
Djebel  Cherchar  appear  to  be  those  of  the  rest  of  the 
Aures. 

As  soon  as  we  arrived  in  Chebla  the  assistance  of  our 
medicine  chest  was  called  in  for  a  couple  of  young  men, 
both  of  whom  appeared  to  be  suffering  from  pneumonia, 
one  of  them  so  ill  as  to  be  quite  beyond  any  help  we  could 
give  him.  In  the  night  following  he  died,  the  heart-rending 
wails  of  the  women  of  his  family  breaking  the  stillness 
of  the  night  as  he  breathed  his  last,  for  the  women  make 
a  point  of  demonstrating  their  sorrow  as  much  as  possible, 
uttering  piercing  cries,  and  often  drawing  blood  from 
their  cheeks  by  tearing  them  with  their  nails  in  a  real 
or  assumed  agony  of  grief. 

Our  other  patient,  however,  began  slowly  to  improve, 
and  when  we  left  the  village  he  was,  I  think,  on  the  road 
to  recovery,  not  owing  to  any  medical  skill  on  our  part, 
but  rather  to  the  various  little  comforts  we  were  able 
to  find  for  him,  and  to  the  fact  that  we  encouraged  him 
to  make  a  fight  for  life,  for  natives  are  very  apt  to  resign 
themselves  to  a  death  which  they  consider  inevitable 
even  when  they  are  not  seriously  ill  at  all. 

A  good  deal  of  our  time  at  Chebla,  when  we  were  not 
partaking  of  the  "  mechwis  "  which  our  host,  the  Kaid, 
placed  before  us  with  embarrassing  regularity,  was  spent 
in  wandering  about  the  gardens  in  the  wide  valley  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Wed  el  Arab  overlooked  by  the 
village,  gardens  in  which  the  date-palms  of  the  lower 
and   more  southern   villages   had   given   place   to   fruit, 


224    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

olive,  and  fig  trees,  and  to  wider  fields  of  corn  and  beans, 
for  at  Chebla  there  is  more  space  available  for  cultivation 
than  at  Ouldja  or  Tebouia  Hamed.  Thus  we  were  able 
to  learn  some  details  of  the  methods  of  farmers  in  the 
Djebel  Cherchar,  methods  indistinguishable  from  those 
of  the  basin  to  the  north  of  the  Rassira  valley  and  other 
parts  of  the  western  Aures.  We  also  went  over,  accom- 
panied by  the  Ka'id,  to  visit  the  "  zawia  "  of  two  well- 
known  marabouts,  brothers  belonging  to  the  family  of 
Abd  el  Hafed,  who  resided  near  the  village  of  Kheirane, 
a  few  miles  to  the  north. 

Riding  over  a  steep  hill  to  avoid  a  bend  in  the  stream 
— the  Wed  el  Arab  is  very  tortuous  in  its  course — we 
found  the  village  beside  the  river,  the  "  zawia  "  consisting 
of  quite  a  small  village  of  huts,  in  addition  to  the  resi- 
dence of  the  holy  men  themselves,  lying  some  three 
hundred  yards  lower  down  the  stream,  also  upon  its 
bank.  The  marabouts  received  us  most  cordially,  bidding 
us  "  Welcome,  with  blessing,"  and  conducted  us  over 
their  settlement  in  the  midst  of  which  a  large  house, 
designed  more  or  less  upon  a  European  plan,  was  in 
course  of  construction,  our  hosts  expressing  the  hope 
that,  upon  the  occasion  of  our  next  visit,  we  should 
occupy  it  ourselves.  Indeed,  I  think  the  two  brothers 
were  a  little  hurt  that  we  could  not  stay  for  a  few  days 
in  the  "  zawia "  then,  for  they  pride  themselves  very 
much  upon  their  hospitality,  but  in  the  circumstances 
this  was  not  possible,  in  fact  we  could  only  spare  one  day 
to  examine  the  village  of  Kheirane  itself. 

This  hamlet,  of  some  sixty  huts,  is  built  upon  the  steep 
slope  of  a  rocky  knoll,  the  opposite  side  of  which  consists 
of  a  sheer  cliff,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  high, 
overlooking  the  left  bank  of  the  Wed  el  Arab  and  the 
cornfields  and  gardens  beyond  the  stream,  a  view  that 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  DJEBEL  CHERCHAR  225 

is  especially  beautiful  in  the  spring,  when  the  green  of 
the  rising  corn  and  the  blossom  of  the  fruit  trees  serve 
to  relieve  the  monotony  of  the  sombre  groves  of  olives. 
In  many  respects  Kheirane  may  be  said  to  resemble 
Beni  Ferah,  but  I  think  the  distant  views  obtainable 
from  it  are  superior  to  those  from  the  rocky  knoll  of 
the  first  Shawia  village  in  which  we  had  stayed,  for  from 
Kheirane  is  visible  a  fine  panorama  of  the  steep  and  barren 
slopes  of  the  Djebel  Cherchar,  forming  a  most  striking 
contrast  to  the  beauty  of  its  oasis.  A  day  or  two  after 
our  visit  to  Kheirane  we  left  Chebla,  and,  still  accom- 
panied by  our  friend  the  Kaid,  proceeded  eastwards 
towards  the  summit  of  the  Djebel  Cherchar  at  the  southern 
end  of  its  great  ridge,  on  our  way  to  a  village  of  which 
we  had  heard  much,  Djellal,  upon  the  eastern  side  of 
the  mountain.  The  main  slope  of  the  mountain  is  ap- 
proached from  Chebla  through  a  dry  ravine,  descending 
from  the  mountain  to  the  Wed  el  Arab,  after  leaving 
which  we  found  ourselves  upon  the  very  steep  upper 
slopes  of  Cherchar,  slopes  of  small  stones  and  crumbling 
soil,  from  which  larger  rocks  were  to  be  seen  projecting 
at  all  angles.  The  ascent  was  long  and  trying  for  our 
mules,  but,  when  once  we  had  reached  the  crest  of  the 
ridge,  whence  we  obtained  wonderful  views  of  Chelia  and 
other  high  peaks  of  the  Aures  to  the  north-west  and  of  the 
boundless  desert  to  the  south,  we  entered  a  more  level 
country,  a  high-lying  plateau  sloping  towards  the  south, 
leaving  to  the  north  of  our  path  the  highest  portion  of 
the  great  white  ridge  of  the  Djebel  Cherchar,  some  six 
thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  At  the  time  of  our  passage 
the  spring  had  called  into  being  upon  this  high  plateau 
numberless  wild  flowers,  yellow,  mauve,  pink,  white, 
and  purple,  while  poppies  glowed  red  in  the  fields  of 
corn,  which,  to  our  surprise,  we  found  in  considerable 

15 


226     AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

numbers  upon  the  hill  protected  by  a  number  of  scattered 
stone  huts,  the  majority  of  which  were  untenanted  as 
we  passed,  being  only  inhabited  at  the  time  of  the  harvest, 
or  when  the  heat  of  summer  renders  the  low-lying  villages, 
such  as  Chebla,  almost  unendurable  even  to  the  natives. 
We  encountered  quite  a  number  of  flocks  of  sheep  and 
goats  grazing  upon  the  summit  of  the  ridge,  a  country 
rather  less  barren  than  its  western  slopes,  and  we  learned 
that  these  belonged  to  members  of  the  Raid's  tribe  who, 
though  belonging  to  the  fair-haired  Berber  race,  lived 
the  life  of  nomads  beneath  their  tents  of  goats'  hair. 

These  Shawia,  however,  merely  move  up  and  down 
their  own  mountain,  the  Djebel  Cherchar,  according  to 
the  season,  their  country  sufficing  to  keep  life  in  their 
flocks  without  necessitating  their  removal  to  the  northern 
plateau  in  the  summer,  so  that  the  area  over  which  they 
are  obliged  to  wander  is  far  less  extensive  than  that  of 
their  Arab  neighbours  to  the  south. 

Indeed,  a  very  large  proportion  of  our  host's  people 
reside  in  tents,  a  fact  which  accounts  for  the  small  number 
of  villages  to  be  found  in  the  region  we  were  traversing. 

When  we  arrived  at  the  Government  "  bordj  "  of 
Djellal,  a  building  erected  for  the  convenience  of  officials 
in  the  days  of  the  military  administration,  and  not  a 
miniature  hotel,  such  as  those  we  had  stayed  in  at 
Dj^mora  and  Menaa,  we  found  ourselves  upon  the  western 
slope  of  a  fairly  wide  valley,  running  from  the  slopes  of 
the  Djebel  Cherchar  southwards  towards  the  desert, 
great  stretches  of  which  were  visible  from  the  "  bordj," 
but,  although  we  looked  out  upon  the  back  of  the  village, 
we  could  not  realize  until  we  had  examined  it  from  the 
east  its  truly  remarkable  situation,  of  which  the  Kai'd 
had  told  us  so  much. 

Two  spurs  of  rock  project  into  the  valley  to  which  I 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  DJEBEL  CHERCHAR  227 

have  referred  from  its  western  side,  just  below  the  point 
at  which  the  valley  opens  out  from  the  narrow  gorge, 
through  which  its  torrent  flows  down  from  the  mountain. 

Upon  the  larger  of  these  spurs,  a  mighty  mass  of  rock 
literally  overhanging  the  fertile  valley  two  hundred  feet 
below  it,  stands  the  greater  part  of  the  village  of  Djellal. 

Its  houses  built  flush  with  the  cliff  edge,  crevices  in 
which  are  even  bridged  by  logs  whereon  to  rest  their 
rough  stone  walls,  unapproachable  save  along  the  neck 
of  land  which  joins  the  spur  to  the  hill  on  the  western 
side  of  the  valley,  Djellal  is  invisible  from  any  distance 
when  approached  from  the  north,  for  its  buildings  are 
indistinguishable  from  the  rocks  on  which  they  stand. 
A  certain  number  of  houses,  newer  ones  it  seemed  to  us, 
stand  upon  the  smaller  spur  to  the  north  of  the  main 
village,  and  separated  from  it  by  a  deep  rocky  chasm. 

Djellal  resembles  some  of  the  hamlets  of  the  Rassira 
canon  more  than  those  of  any  other  of  the  Aures  valleys, 
and,  though  beneath  the  shadow  of  the  Djebel  Cherchar 
there  lies  no  such  mighty  gorge  as  that  to  whose  brink 
Ouled  Mansour  clings  like  an  eagle's  nest  below  the  glow- 
ing slopes  of  Amar  Khraddou,  the  scenery  of  its  surround- 
ing country  is  at  least  as  fine.  Standing  upon  a  housetop 
in  the  main  village  of  Djellal  the  traveller  will  find  to 
the  north  a  narrow  gorge,  beautiful  enough  if  mean 
compared  with  that  of  the  Rassira,  while  to  the  south, 
looking  down  the  valley,  in  which  the  green  of  orchards 
and  cornfields  relieve  the  barren  splendour  of  the  scene, 
he  will  discover  the  low  foothills  on  the  edge  of  the 
Sahara,  their  slopes  clothed  at  evening  in  the  delicate 
shades  of  grey,  pink,  and  purple,  which  we  have  seen 
to  be  characteristic  of  desert  hills,  and  beyond  them  a 
vast  panorama  of  the  desert  itself  will  be  unfolded  to 
his  gaze. 


228     AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

Immediately  below  the  crag  upon  which  the  main 
village  stands  the  excellent  track,  which  we  have  already 
noticed  as  leading  from  Khanga  Sidi  Nadji  to  the  north- 
ward beneath  the  eastern  wall  of  the  Djebel  Cherchar, 
winds  around  the  rocky  spur,  and,  crossing  the  stream 
below  the  village,  ascends  the  opposite  side  of  the  valley 
on  its  way  to  the  plateau  to  the  north. 

This  track,  which  very  little  additional  labour  would 
render  accessible  to  cars,  was  largely  made  by  German 
prisoners  during  the  war.  The  treatment  accorded  to 
these  prisoners  was  of  a  kind  which  the  Shawia  could  not 
in  the  least  understand.  To  them  an  enemy  is  an  enemy, 
whether  a  prisoner  or  not,  and  an  enemy  whose  aggression 
has  raised  the  price  of  anything  which  he  himself  may 
wish  to  buy  is  more  of  an  enemy  than  any  one  else  could 
possibly  become  ;  the  fact  that  the  prisoners  were  fed, 
therefore,  still  rankles  in  the  native  breast  as  an  instance 
of  European  imbecility ! 

After  spending  sufficient  time  at  Djellal  to  enable  me 
to  compare  certain  of  its  customs  and  its  crafts  with  those 
of  other  portions  of  the  Aures  massif,  we  left  our  hospit- 
able friend  the  Kaid  and  continued  our  way  northward 
to  the  village  of  Taberdga,  formerly  the  residence  of 
the  member  of  the  Bel  Hacine  family  who  had  ruled 
over  the  whole  district  of  the  Djebel  Cherchar,  and  now 
the  headquarters  of  an  Assistant  Administrator,  who  is 
in  charge  of  the  area  we  had  traversed  since  arriving  at 
Khanga  Sidi  Nadji. 

The  way  itself  was  none  too  interesting  when  once 
intervening  hills  had  hidden  from  our  view  the  desert 
and  its  foothills  to  the  south,  and,  though  we  passed  a 
number  of  groups  of  tents,  we  found  but  one  small  hamlet 
on  our  way.  The  remarkable  part  of  the  journey  only 
began   when,   after  meeting   the   French   official   by  the 


atfvT 


"~V    *'"~*>»1  "*»••*"  '  *.  jf  >•>  «^         La^  "      fife.    *«i/^^^BKSs»i^> 


THE    CLIFF-TOP    VILLAGE    OF    DJELLAL. 


To  face  p.  223. 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  DJEBEL  CHERCHAR  229 

wayside,  we  turned  eastward  from  the  main  track  and 
approached  the  village  of  Taberdga  itself. 

Proceeding  along  the  track  from  this  point  northward, 
a  road  quite  suitable  for  carriages  equipped  with  powerful 
springs,  we  suddenly  found  ourselves  upon  a  hillside 
overlooking  a  deep  basin,  the  junction  of  four  ravines, 
in  the  midst  of  which  a  great  knoll  of  rock,  overlooking 
a  number  of  gardens  and  an  oleander-bordered  stream 
beneath  it,  projected  from  the  wall  of  the  basin,  to  which 
it  was  linked  by  a  rocky  isthmus  no  more  than  ten  yards 
wide. 

Upon  this  knoll,  huddled  together  in  the  small  space 
available  on  its  summit,  lay  the  mosque  and  houses  of 
Taberdga,  while  at  a  slightly  lower  level,  upon  the  apex 
of  the  knoll  or  spur,  stood  a  large  rectangular  building, 
somewhat  prison-like  in  appearance  owing  to  the  scarcity 
of  windows  in  its  walls,  the  former  residence  of  Bel  Hacine. 
Descending  into  the  basin,  and  passing  close  to  the 
modern  French  dwelling  and  office  of  the  Administrator, 
we  commenced  the  ascent  to  the  village  itself. 

The  path,  a  good  enough  mule  track  upon  which  to 
ride,  led  around  the  rocky  wall  of  the  main  basin,  gradually 
ascending  towards  the  isthmus,  the  rocks  overhanging  it 
in  some  places  to  such  an  extent  that  Ave  found  ourselves 
riding  along  a  niche  or  cleft  in  the  cliff,  in  which  we  were 
often  obliged  to  lean  almost  upon  the  necks  of  our  mules 
in  order  to  keep  our  heads  clear  of  the  rocks  above  us. 
Beneath  us  an  absolutely  sheer  drop  of  three  hundred 
feet  to  the  gardens  and  the  stream  caused  us  to  bless 
the  Providence  that  had  made  sureness  of  foot  one  of 
the  attributes  of  the  mule. 

Upon  the  neck  or  isthmus  itself  we  found  such  a  drop 
on  either  hand,  the  path  commanded  by  the  gateway  of 
the  village,  whose  situation  must  have  rendered  it  quite 


230     AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

impregnable  in  the  days  of  old,  and  passing  on  through 
the  gateway  we  reached  the  only  narrow  lane  of  this 
part  of  the  hamlet,  where  the  spur  is  too  narrow  to  allow 
of  further  expansion. 

Continuing  our  way  through  the  village,  in  which  many 
of  its  little  stone-built  cottages  had  fallen  into  disrepair, 
owing  to  the  settled  conditions  of  French  rule  which  had 
enabled  the  Shawia  to  move  into  the  valley  from  their 
homes  in  a  natural  fortress,  we  drew  up  at  the  large  house 
of  the  former  Kaid,  in  which  we  were  to  be  entertained 
by  the  present  chief  of  the  area. 

This  house,  built  under  the  direction  of  a  European, 
was  solid  and,  in  its  way,  stately,  for  its  rooms  were  large 
and  lofty,  its  lack  of  windows,  due  to  Arab  requirements 
as  to  the  seclusion  of  women,  however,  rendered  it 
unsightly  from  without.  Indeed,  well  built  as  it  was, 
the  house  appeared  singularly  out  of  place  in  such  close 
proximity  to  a  picturesque  cluster  of  Shawia  dwellings, 
and,  for  the  sake  of  the  landscape,  it  had  been  better 
erected  in  a  less  conspicuous  position  than  on  the  apex 
of  the  spur.  Entertained  most  hospitably  by  the  Adminis- 
trator and  the  Kaid,  our  days  passed  pleasantly  enough, 
spent  in  wandering  around  the  village,  engaged  in  our 
usual  occupation  of  trying  to  make  friends  among  its 
inhabitants,  or  sitting,  sheltered  from  the  rays  of  the 
sun,  beside  a  delightfully  cool  grotto,  where  a  tiny  stream 
fell  from  a  height  of  a  few  feet  into  a  pool  in  a  little  basin 
of  rock  with  the  sound  of  running  water  so  enchanting 
to  the  car  of  a  wanderer  in  a  barren  land.  But  our  life 
in  this,  the  last,  Shawia  settlement  we  were  to  visit  was 
devoid  of  incident,  and  we  found  no  outstanding  feature 
of  native  life  which  differed  in  any  but  the  smallest  detail 
from  those  we  had  noted  elsewhere,  many  of  which  we 
have  attempted  to  lay  before  the  reader  in  the  foregoing 


THE  VALLEYS  OF  THE  DJEBEL  CHERCHAR  231 

pages.  Indeed,  our  journey  from  desert  to  the  plateau 
up  the  Djebel  Cherchar,  described  in  this  chapter  already 
too  long,  was  more  hurried  than  any  of  our  previous 
wanderings  in  the  hills,  and  had  for  its  object  rather  the 
comparison  of  arts  and  crafts,  manners  and  customs 
studied  in  the  west  with  those  of  the  eastern  Shawia 
than  a  detailed  examination  of  the  latter.  Little,  then, 
of  interest  to  the  reader  resulted  from  this  expedition, 
nor  is  there  any  need  to  weary  him  with  a  description  of 
a  thirty-mile  drive  from  Taberdga  to  Khenchela  on  the 
plateau,  undertaken  in  a  carriage  obtained  from  the 
latter  town,  through  the  dreary  scenery  of  a  broad  valley, 
the  home  of  a  nomad  Berber  tribe,  after  which  we  gained 
the  railway  at  Batna  in  a  commonplace  motor  'bus. 

But  there  is  one  point  about  the  area  described  in  this 
chapter,  at  least  such  of  it  as  lies  to  the  east  of  the  Djebel 
Cherchar,  to  which  we  may  once  more  call  attention, 
and  that  is  the  track,  I  had  almost  said  the  road,  which 
runs  from  Khanga  Sidi  Nadji  to  Djellal  Taberdga  and 
the  north. 

I  believe  that  the  greater  part  of  this  track  is  even  now 
passable  to  wheels,  indeed,  as  I  have  pointed  out,  we 
ourselves  covered  the  northern  portion  of  it  in  a  carriage, 
so  that,  perhaps,  to-day  the  quiet  and  delightful  oasis 
of  Khanga,  the  eerie-like  hamlet  on  the  crags  of  Djellal, 
and  the  impregnable  village  of  Taberdga  may  all  be  within 
the  reach  of  the  tourist  without  the  discomforts  of  a 
prolonged  journey  on  muleback. 

And,  no  doubt,  in  the  near  future  this  way  will  be 
opened  to  cars.  But  the  traveller  who  desires  to  explore 
in  a  carriage  the  villages  described  in  this  chapter  will 
be  well  advised  to  ascertain  from  the  French  authorities 
whether  or  no  the  road  is  clear  before  setting  out  on 
his  journey.    Here,  then,  at  Taberdga  at  the  moment 


232    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

when  we  cease  for  the  time  being  our  investigations  in 
the  hills,  we  will  bid  the  reader  farewell  in  the  very  faint 
hope  that  in  our  efforts  to  lead  him  through  the  valleys  of 
the  Aures  and  to  point  out  to  him  some  of  the  quaint 
old  customs  of  the  Shawia,  customs  which  cannot  indefi- 
nitely resist  the  advance  of  Western  civilization  and  ideas, 
we  may  have  aroused  in  him  a  spark  of  that  interest 
which  the  hill-folk  of  Algeria  long  since  kindled  in  our- 
selves, and  which  successive  visits  to  the  mountains 
have  fanned  into  a  flame. 


APPENDIX  I 

HINTS  TO  TRAVELLERS  IN  THE  AURES 

IT  is  hoped  that  the  following  brief  hints  on  outfit, 
etc.,  suitable  for  journeys  in  the  Algerian  hills  will 
enable  the  traveller  to  arrive  in  the  country  equipped 
with  at  least  the  necessities  for  his  expedition. 

1.  Seasons. — The  Autumn  or  the  Spring,  by  which 
latter  is  meant  the  months  of  March  and  April,  are  the 
most  suitable  for  travelling  in  the  Aures  massif,  though 
the  high-lying  villages  could  be  visited  as  late  as  the  early 
summer,  while  the  lower  southern  slopes  of  the  range 
and  the  oases,  such  as  Djemora,  Mechounech,  and 
Khanga  Sidi  Nadji,  which  lie  at  their  feet,  should  not  as 
a  rule  prove  too  cold  even  in  mid-winter. 

2.  Clothing. — The  traveller  to  the  hills  or  to  El  Kantara 
and  even  Biskra  should  provide  himself  with  garments 
such  as  he  would  wear  during  an  English  autumn,  for 
nights  are  often  cold,  and  the  wind  sometimes  blows 
chill  from  the  snow-clad  peaks  in  winter. 

A  warm  overcoat  is  essential,  especially  for  those  who 
proceed  up-country  from  Algiers  by  car,  for  snow  is  to 
be  expected  upon  the  high  central  plateau  of  Algeria. 

For  journeys  in  the  hills,  such  as  those  I  have  attempted 
to  describe,  a  change  of  warm  clothing,  in  which  the 
traveller  can  ride  (ladies  will  find  it  wise  to  ride  astride 

233 


234     AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

along  the  narrow  mountain  paths),  a  good  overcoat,  and 
a  shady  hat  appear  to  be  the  only  essentials. 

Those  who  travel  in  the  Sahara  as  late  as  the  end  of 
March  will  probably  find  a  topee  a  comfort,  if  not  an 
absolute  necessity.  These  can  be  bought  cheaply  at 
Biskra. 

Tinted  glasses  will  be  found  useful  to  those  whose  eyes 
are  weak  in  the  glare  of  the  desert  and  the  barren  rocky 
hills. 

We  have  long  since  discarded  leather  footgear,  which 
is  worn  through  in  no  time  upon  the  rocks,  in  favour  of 
canvas  boots  with  rope  soles,  to  which  extra  soles  of  motor 
tyre  are  stitched  by  a  native  cobbler  at  El  Kantara. 
These,  worn  over  two  pairs  of  thick  socks,  will  be  found 
to  lessen  the  jar  to  the  feet  in  walking  over  stony  ground, 
to  give  an  excellent  grip  of  the  smooth  rocks  when 
climbing,  and  to  be  noiseless  (a  great  advantage  to  the 
hunter).  In  addition  they  are  cheap,  and  with  three 
pairs  of  such  boots  the  traveller  should  be  equipped  for 
a  whole  winter  in  the  hills. 

It  is  well  to  remember  that,  when  staying  at  up-country 
inns,  it  is  often  impossible  to  find  a  laundress  capable  of 
starching  collars  and  shirts,  though  ordinary  washing  can 
always  be  done  in  such  places. 

3.  Equipment. — Living  in  the  huts  of  the  Shawia,  we 
have  never  required  tents  in  the  hills.  These,  however, 
are  necessary  for  shooting  expeditions  in  uninhabited 
areas,  and  can  be  hired  at  El  Kantara  or  Biskra,  together 
with  the  necessary  material  for  a  camp.  Should  the 
traveller  prefer  to  use  his  own  tent,  he  will  find  that  a 
double-roof  is  unnecessary,  as  rain  is  infrequent  on  the 
shooting  grounds.  Officers'  sleeping  valises,  well  pro- 
vided   with    blankets,    a   couple   of  X-pattern   chairs,   a 


HINTS   TO  TRAVELLERS   IN  THE   AURfiS    235 

large  water-bottle  (all  purchased  in  England),  and  some 
cheap  table-ware,  a  kettle,  saucepan  and  spirit  lamp, 
wherewith  to  prepare  a  meal  in  an  emergency,  complete 
the  list  of  the  equipment  we  have  used. 

4.  Saddlery. — In  preference  to  taking  out  European 
saddles  from  England,  which  cannot  be  expected  to  suit 
every  sore  back  they  will  encounter,  we  have  used  sur- 
cingles fitted  with  stirrups,  which  pass  over  the  native 
pad  or  saddle  upon  the  mule,  and  so  hold  it  in  position, 
as  well  as  affording  a  rest  for  the  feet. 

Such  a  surcingle,  adjustable  from  sixty  to  seventy-five 
inches,  from  shortest  and  longest  hole  to  buckle,  should 
serve  for  any  Algerian  mule. 

5.  Stores. — Those  who  intend  to  live  upon  native 
fare  should  provide  themselves  with  a  few  stores,  such 
as  soup-squares,  preserved  meats,  porridge,  etc.,  for  use 
if  the  Shawia  cooking  becomes  intolerable. 

Stores  for  the  hunter  in  uninhabited  areas  can  be 
arranged  for  by  the  hotel  from  which  he  starts,  should 
he  state  his  requirements  in  advance. 

6.  Maps. — Excellent  maps  of  Algeria,  Tunisia,  and 
Morocco  can  be  obtained  from  Messrs.  Carbonnel  (late 
Adolphe  Jourdan),  Place  du  Gouverncment,  Algiers,  or 
from  Messrs.  Marcin  at  Biskra.  A  single  sheet,  to  a 
scale  of  1 :  800,000,  is  a  convenient  map  of  Eastern  Algeria, 
while  a  far  more  detailed  map  (1  :  200,000)  in  seven 
sheets  covers  the  area  dealt  with  in  this  book. 

7.  Expenses. — There  is  no  question  connected  with 
Algeria  upon  which  it  is  so  difficult  to  make  a  definite 
statement  at  the  present  moment,  as  upon  the  possible 
expenses  of  a  journey  in  that  country. 


236     AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

Prices  of  everything  have  risen  to  a  very  great  extent 
from  the  very  moderate  rates  current  before  the  war, 
and  they  are  as  yet  by  no  means  stable. 

The  only  advice  that  can  be  offered  to  the  intending 
traveller  is  that  he  should  make  it  a  rule  to  inquire  the 
price  of  everything  in  advance  (a  precaution  which  is 
neglected  to  an  extraordinary  extent),  and  that,  upon 
learning  the  terms  suggested  by  "  guides  "  for  hire  of 
animals,  camping,  etc.,  he  should  refer  these  terms 
where  possible  to  some  local  resident  or  committee  (e.g. 
the  Syndicat  d'Initiative  at  Biskra)  befoie  accepting 
them.  The  native  usually  bases  his  charges  upon  his 
conception  of  the  traveller's  capacity  to  pay,  and,  it  must 
be  confessed,  the  carelessness  in  money  matters  of  many 
tourists  has  encouraged  this  system  to  such  a  degree  that 
prices  have  risen  to  an  incredible  extent  since  the  war. 

When  I  say  that  tourists  have  paid  as  much  as  two 
hundred  and  fifty  francs  a  head  per  diem  for  camping 
tours,  the  reader  will  understand  the  necessity  for  caution 
in  concluding  bargains  ! 

The  traveller  must  haggle  with  the  native,  and,  having 
haggled,  should  arrange  his  final  terms  in  the  presence 
of  a  European  resident  in  Algeria  with  a  view  to  avoiding 
discussion  at  the  end  of  his  trip. 

As  regards  hotels,  if  some  are  expensive,  there  are 
plenty  of  others  in  the  larger  centres  which  are  clean 
and  comfortable,  yet  more  moderate  in  their  terms. 


APPENDIX  II 
SPORT 

THE  very  brief  notes  contained  in  this  Appendix 
constitute  an  attempt  to  answer  the  questions  so 
often  put  to  me  as  to  the  possibilities  for  sport  existing 
in  the  area  described  in  the  foregoing  pages. 

Of  the  various  regions  I  have  attempted  to  describe, 
the  desert  and  the  hills  around  El  Kantara  are  the  most 
likely  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  sportsman. 

The  greatest  prize  which  can  fall  to  the  hunter's  rifle 
in  south-eastern  Algeria  is  undoubtedly  the  Barbary 
sheep,  the  Ovis  Lervia  of  scientists,  the  "  aroui "  or 
"  feshtal  "  of  the  Arabs,  miscalled  the  "  moufflon  "  by 
the  French. 

This  great  sheep,  which  sometimes  stands  more  than 
forty  inches  at  the  shoulder,  is  remarkable  for  the  very 
heavy  fringe  of  long  hair  upon  the  throat,  chest,  and 
knees  of  the  rams,  whose  massive  horns  curve  outwards 
and  backwards,  but  rarely  attain  a  greater  length  than 
twenty-five  or  twenty-six  inches,  though  according  to 
Rowland  Ward's  Records  of  Big  Game,  a  thirty-three  inch 
head  has  been  obtained. 

The  ewes  are  smaller  than  the  rams,  but,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  they  carry  similar,  though  smaller,  horns  and 
fringes,  it  is  difficult  enough  to  distinguish  the  sexes 
when  seen  upon  the  hillside.  Sheep  are  to  be  found 
upon  several  of  the  hills  around  El  Kantara  (in  1914  I 

237 


238     AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK   OF  ALGERIA 

shot  one  within  sight  of  the  inn  upon  the  cliffs  of 
Metlili),  but  they  are  very  hard  to  approach,  for,  although 
the  climbing  in  the  country  around  El  Kantara  is  not 
so  difficult  as  climbing  can  be  in  some  of  the  haunts  of 
mountain  game,  it  none  the  less  requires  a  steady  head 
and  a  sound  wind  on  the  part  of  the  sportsman,  and  a 
stalk  is  often  liable  to  interference  owing  to  the  frequent 
presence  of  shepherds  roaming  over  the  mountain-side 
with  their  flocks. 

It  appears  that  sheep  are  in  the  habit  of  moving  from 
one  range  to  another  if  much  disturbed,  even  crossing 
many  miles  of  intervening  country  on  their  way,  so  that 
choice  of  a  hunting-ground  must  be  left  until  the  sports- 
man has  been  able  to  ascertain  from  local  natives  the 
most  likely  hills  at  the  time  he  proposes  to  start  out. 
Two  species  of  gazelles  are  also  obtainable  from  El 
Kantara,  and  can  even  be  killed  without  sleeping  a  night 
away  from  the  inn.  These  are  Gazella  Cuvieri,  the  "  edmi  " 
of  the  Arabs,  whose  habitat  is  confined  to  the  Barbary 
States,  where  it  haunts  the  slopes  of  the  hills  which 
fringe  the  desert,  and  thus,  to  some  extent,  encroaches 
on  the  ground  of  the  sheep,  and  Gazella  Dorcas,  in  Arabic 
"  ghazal,"  the  beautiful  little  gazelle  of  the  plains  to  be 
found  from  Morocco  to  Syria,  from  the  Mediterranean 
to  the  Sudan.  This  animal,  though  properly  a  denizen 
of  the  plains,  is  also  to  be  found  upon  the  lower  slopes 
frequented  by  the  "  edmi." 

The  two  gazelles  will  be  found  to  be  almost,  if  not  quite, 
as  difficult  to  approach  as  the  sheep.  This  is  largely  due 
to  the  lack  of  cover  in  the  stony  desert,  and  to  the  remark- 
ably changeable  character  of  the  wind  in  the  broken 
ground  which  they  inhabit. 

The  method  of  hunting  which  I  have  always  adopted 
for  the  three  animals  is  substantially  the  same. 


SPORT  239 

Leaving  the  inn  (or  my  camp  if  I  have  wandered  far 
in  search  of  sport)  before  dawn  with  one  Arab  shikari, 
a  mule,  and  a  native  muleteer,  I  conceal  the  mule  with 
its  man  in  the  dry  bed  of  a  stream  in  the  desert,  or  at 
the  foot  of  the  hill  I  am  about  to  search  for  game.  The 
shikari  and  I  then  proceed  to  work  carefully  over  the 
ground,  and,  concealing  ourselves  upon  some  coign  of 
vantage,  search  the  country  with  our  glasses  in  an 
endeavour  to  find  animals  feeding  before  they  lie  down 
for  the  day. 

Once  the  game  is  seen  the  stalk  begins  over  trying  and 
difficult  ground,  and,  if  successful,  terminates  in  a  shot 
which  is  often  long  and  usually  at  moving  game.  The 
remaining  animals  to  be  found  near  El  Kantara,  the 
striped  hyena,  the  jackal,  and  the  fox,  are  scarcely  like 
to  tempt  the  sportsman,  while  the  other  game  animals 
of  Algeria  must  be  sought  further  afield ;  the  addax 
antelope  far  down  in  the  Sahara,  around  Wargla ;  the 
"  rhim,"  or  Loder's  gazelle,  among  the  sand  dunes  of 
the  great  desert ;  the  Barbary  stag  (the  only  representa- 
tive of  the  deer  family  to  be  found  in  Africa),  near 
Tebessa,  or  around  Collo  on  the  coast ;  the  leopard, 
among  the  wooded  hills  near  the  shores  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean ;  while  the  boar,  Sus  Scrofa  of  the  naturalists,  occu- 
pies many  of  the  wooded  districts  of  Algeria,  including 
the  higher  parts  of  the  Aures  massif. 

Several  natives  of  El  Kantara  are  accustomed  to 
acting  as  shikari  to  European  sportsmen,  all  of  whom 
are  keen  and  hardworking,  but  one  of  them  seems  to 
possess  a  wider  knowledge  of  the  habits  of  game  and 
greater  aptitude  in  stalking  it  than  the  rest,  namely  my 
old  friend  Si  Amar. 

I  have  always  found  that  this  man,  if  left  alone  and 
not    worried    by    futile    suggestions    from    his    employer 


240    AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 

(who,  after  all,  cannot  know  the  ground  as  a  native  knows 
it),  can  be  relied  upon  to  find  game  if  game  is  to  be  found, 
and  to  approach  it  if  it  is  approachable.  What  shikari 
can  do  more  ? 

The  method  of  hunting  boar  which  I  have  found  to 
be  the  most  satisfactory  is  to  obtain  the  services  of  one 
or  two  Shawia  who  possess  dogs  properly  trained  to  hunt 
these  animals. 

The  sportsman  and  his  native  companions  search  for 
fresh  tracks  of  the  animals  beside  some  watering-place, 
and,  when  these  are  found,  lay  on  the  dogs,  which  run 
mute  until  they  actually  get  a  view  of  their  quarry,  when 
they  give  vent  to  short  sharp  yelps. 

Pursuing  the  boar  as  he  makes  off  through  the  wood- 
land, yelping  as  they  run,  the  dogs  will  soon  bring  him 
to  bay,  and  thus  enable  the  sportsman  to  come  up  and 
obtain  a  shot. 

As  regards  a  rifle  for  use  in  hunting  any  of  the  game 
of  El  Kantara,  or  the  hills,  I  think  any  of  the  modern 
high -velocity  small  bores  will  be  found  suitable ;  I  have 
used  a  *256  and  a  '303.  The  rifle  should  be  light  and 
fitted  with  a  sling.  No  permit  is  required  to  import  a 
rifle  or  shot-gun  as  personal  luggage  into  Algeria,  but  the 
importation  of  ammunition  is  prohibited  unless  special 
permission  for  it  has  been  obtained  from  the  Governor- 
General.  Shot-gun  cartridges  can  be  purchased  in  the 
country,  but  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  the 
sportsman  should  bring  with  him  the  few  rounds  he  will 
require  for  his  rifle.  These  he  cannot  obtain  in 
Algiers. 

Upon  arrival  at  Algiers  the  sportsman  must  procure, 
at  the  Prefecture,  a  shooting  licence,  costing  twenty-eight 
francs,  which  entitles  him  to  kill  any  game  to  be  found 
in  the  country  except  the  Barbary  stag,  to  shoot  which, 


SPORT  241 

I  believe,  a  special  permission  from  the  Governor-General 
is  required. 

The  equipment  required  for  a  shooting  expedition  differs 
in  no  respect  from  that  already  described  as  being  desirable 
for  a  journey  in  the  Aures,  save  that  the  general  coloration 
of  clothes  and  hat  should  be  light  khaki  or  fawn  for  use 
in  the  desert,  or  among  the  barren  rocks  of  the  sheep 
hills.  The  canvas  boots  I  have  mentioned  will  be  found 
excellent  for  hunting. 

Most  of  the  Algerian  shikaris  can  skin  trophies  if  care- 
fully supervised  (Si  Amar  does  so  quite  well),  and  skins 
will  be  found  to  dry  quickly  in  the  shade  if  treated  merely 
with  cold  wood  ashes.  Up  to  now  my  own  trophies 
from  El  Kantara  have  reached  England  in  perfect 
condition,  doubtless  owing  to  the  dryness  of  the  desert 
climate. 

In  conclusion  I  will  attempt  to  answer  the  general 
question :  "  Is  it  worth  while  to  take  my  rifle  to 
Algeria  ?  " 

This  question  is  very  often  put  to  me,  and  is  by  no 
means  easy  to  answer,  for  the  reply  must  depend  upon 
the  temperament  of  the  questioner.  Briefly  my  answer 
is  as  follows.  Sport  is  certainly  obtainable,  but  Algeria 
is  no  country  for  the  mere  "  gunner." 

The  sportsman,  the  man  who  can  appreciate  a  long 
stalk  under  difficult  conditions,  with  the  bare  possibility 
of  a  difficult  shot  at  the  end  of  it,  and  who  can  enjoy  the 
pure  crisp  air  of  the  desert,  its  great  open  spaces,  the 
freedom  of  its  life  and  the  companionship  of  enthusiastic 
native  hunters,  may  confidently  look  forward  to  a  pleasant 
shooting  trip  from  El  Kantara ;  the  person  whose  sole 
delight  is  to  be  found  in  the  magnitude  of  his  bag  had 
better,  for  his  own  sake  as  well  as  for  that  of  the  country, 
leave  his  rifle  at  home. 

16 


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INDEX 


Accident,  113 
Addax  antelope,  239 
"Ademine,"  161 
Agriculture,  160 
Am  Naga,  203 
Ain  Touta,  94,  118 
Ain  Zatout,  see  Beni  Ferah 
Alieness,  221 
Alieness,  Kald,  221 
Amar  Khraddou,  128,  135,  206 
Amentane,  64 
Ammunition,  240 
Amulets,  152 
Anklets,  79,  83 
Apricots,  163 

Arabic  books  of  medicine,  196 
"  Aroui,"  237 
Arris,  174 

Aures — the  Mons  AHrasius  of  Roman 
times,  14,  15,  16  et  passim. 

Bades,  209 

Baniane,  109,  129-35 

Baniane,  Zawia,  133 

"Baraka,"27,  113,  156 

Barbary  sheep,  97,  237 

Barbary  stag,  239 

Barika,  201 

Basha,  175 

Basha  Bashir,  57,  118 

Bash-Agha,  128 

Batna,  14,  15,  17,  65,  90,  115,  178 

Batna-Biskra  railway,  90 

Beads,  78 

Beehives,  223 

Belayed,  103,  113,  115,  130,  139 

Bel  Hacine  family,  210,  212,  213 

Belkadi  ben  Hamou,  37,  81 

Belkassem,  69 

Bellows,  83 

Ben  Chenouf  family,  128 


Beni  Ferah,  18,  35,  90 

Gardens,  42 

Hospitality,  49 

Irrigation,  43 

Meals,  49 

School,  48 

Wedding,  51 
Beni  Suig,  63 
Berber  house,  104 
Berber  furniture,  105 
Berber  pottery-making,  41 
Berber  women,  status  of,  40,  222 
Berbers,    physical    characteristics, 

16,  40 
Bertrand,  Hotel,  18 
Bey  of  Constantine,  128,  214 
Biskra,  13,  14,  15,  17,  199,  200 
"  Black  Village,"  see  El  Kantara 
Block-houses,  108 
Boar  hunt,  100 
Boars,  97,  99,  239,  240 
"  Bordj,"  62 
Boubish,  104 
Bou  Hafs  ben  Chenouf,  128,  129, 

138,  160,  168 
Bou  Hamar,  175 

Mosque,  177 

Sheikh,  176 
Bou  Saada,  58 
Boundary  dispute,  57 
Bouzina,  90,  112 
Bouzina  river,  64,  65 
Bracelets,  78 
Branis,  118 

Feast,  123 

Official  reception,  119 
Bricks,  mud  and  straw,  20 
Brooches,  77,  83 

Cafes,  22 

Caliphs  of  Baghdad,  128 


243 


244      AMONG   THE  HILL-FOLK  OF  ALGERIA 


Canvas  boota,  234 

"  Capital  of  the  Auree,"  66 

Carpet  making,  60 

Carriage  road,  231 

Cats,  33,  107 

Cautery,  193 

Cave-dwellings,  93 

Cemetery,  64 

Chains,  silver,  83 

Champion  shot,  a,  57 

Charms,     110,     113,      145,      146, 

217 
Chebla,  215,  221,  222 

Gardens,  223 

Roof  platform,  222 
Chelia,  14 
Chickens,  33 
Childbirth,  220 
Child  bride,  53 
Chir,  97 
Churn,  32 
Cloaks,  101 

Clothing  for  travellers,  233 
Cobblers,  68 
Coiffure,  76 
Collars,  silver,  78 
Collo,  239 

Commune  Mixte,  174 
Constantine,  13 
Coral,  80,  81 
Corn-mill,  68 
Cupping,  193 

Danseuse,  51 

Date-picking,  24 

Decorative  art,  154 

de  Slane,  108 

Distilling,  195 

Divination,  149 

Divorce,  46 

Djebel  Bouss,  92 

Djebel  Cherchar,  ridge  of,  15,  79, 

199,  206,  225 
Djebel  Zellatou,  159 
Djellal,  215,  225,  226,  227 

"  Bordj,"  226 
Djemora,  oasis,  55,  90,  118 

Carpet  making,  60 

Raul's  house,  59 

Native  bathing,  59 

Rest-house,  62 
Dog's  tooth,  80,  82 


Droh,  125 

Drugs — 

distributing,  182 

native,  195 
Dyeing,  165,  166 

Earrings,  79 
Ear  syringing,  183 
Education,  220 
El  Bekri,  108,  209 
ElKantara,  17,  118 

"  Black  Village  "  of,  19,  20 

the  bridge,  22 

the  cafe,  22 

houses,  31 

"  Red  Village,"  21 

Roman  masonry  at,  20 

"  White  Village  "  of,  19,  20 

women,  29,  30 
El  Outaya,  118 
Epidemics,  198 
"  Evil  eye,"  80,  81,  145 
Eye  lotions,  183 

Family  life,  34,  219 

"  Fantasia,"  121,  122 

Farewell  lunch,  168 

Feast  of  the  Spring,  85,  86,  87,  88 

Feeble-minded  saint,  72 

"Feshtal,"  237 

Festivals,  26 

Filigree  work,  83 

"  Five  in  thine  eye,"  81 

"Fives,"  80 

Flint-lock  musket,  132 

Flowers,  225 

Forests,  99,  114 

Foretelling  the  future,  148,  149 

"  Foum  es  Sahara,"  17 

Fox,  239 

French  orderly,  35 

Fromentin,  17 

Furniture,  32 

Gabds,  Gulf  of,  13 

Games,  88 

"  Gandoura,"  74 

Gardens,  20 

Gate    of    the     Orient,    European 

settlement  of,  18 
Gazella  Cuvieri,  238 
Gazella  Dorcas,  238 


INDEX 


245 


Gazelle,  97,  238 
General  practitioners,  195 
German  prisoners,  228 
Ghoufi,  155,  156 
Girls'  dress,  76 
Goats,  25 

Gold  ornaments,  80 
"  Goum,"  97 
"Goumier,"  119,  120 
Granary,  130,  131 
"Guelaa,"  130,  131,  132 
Gunshot  wounds,  190 

"  Haiks,"  102 

Hand  charm,  145 

Hand-loom,  32,  103 

"  Hand  of  Fathma,"  80 

Haouamed,  tribe,  58 

Harvest  feast,  163 

Head  pendant,  79 

Heavy  jewellery,  87 

Holy  men,  108 

Horse-breeding,  208 

Horsemanship,  122 

House,  Shawia,  104 

Houses,  Arab,  structure  of,  31 

Hyena,  239 

Ichemoul,  99,  159 
Influenza,  63 
Intermarriage,  60 
Irregular  horse,  121 
Irrigation,  43 
Itinerant  musicians,  23 

Jackalls,  25,  239 
Jenoun,  145,  146,  198 
Jinn,  56,  81,  145 

Kabyle  pedlars,  144 
Kahena,  chief tainess,  15 
Kerchiefs,  76 
Khanga  Sidi  Nadji,  15,  206,  209 

Fort,  213 

Kaid,  209,  210 

library,  213 

mosque,  211 

teacher,  212 
Kheirane,  215,  224,  225 
Khenchela,  14,  15,  128,  231 
Knee-cap,  fracture  of,  191,  192 
Knitted  legging,  165 


"  Koora,"  88 

Koran,  147 

"  Kouba,"  26 

"  Kuskus,"  27,  49,  50 

Lambese,  camp  of,  15,  65,  172,  177 

Lavigerie,  Cardinal,  174 

Legion  of  Honour,  129 

Leopard,  239 

Liana,  208,  209 

"  Lightning  Conductor,"  charm,  82 

"  Living  River,"  24 

Locks,  105 

Loder's  gazelle,  239 

Loom,  103 

Love  philtre,  47-8 

Maafa,  18,  92,  93,  94 

canon,  92 

railway  halt,  94 
Magic,  46,  73,  145,  152 

ensuring  a  harvest,  161 

magical  duel,  150 

substances  used,  151 
Mahmel  mountain,  14,  64,  112,  113 
Malbot,  Dr.,  187 
Maps,  235 
Marabout — 

charm,  113 

family,  134 

habits,  110 

hereditary,  109 

influence  of,  112 

magical  healing,  110 

married,  110 

morality,  111 

political  advice,  110 

second  sight,  110 

settling  disputes,  111 

trees,  156 
Marabouts,  26,  71,   104,   107,   108, 

109,  110,  114,  133,  224 
Marriage,  early,  219 
Mausoleum,  26,  212 
Meals,  49 
Mechounech,  116,  117,  126,  127 

Kaid,  128 
"Mechwi,"  123,  124,  135,  169,  223 
"  Mehari,"  120 
Menaa,  63,  65 

bath  house,  67 

"  bordj,"  69 


246     AMONG  THE  HILL-FOLK    OF   ALGERIA 


Menaa  (continued) — 

corn-mill,  68 

founder,  66 

houses,  67 

Kaid,  66,  67 

leather  work,  68 

marabout,  71 

rest-house,  62 

routes,  90 

silverwork,  73,  74  et  seq. 

zawia,  71,  72 
Mercury  mine,  98 
Metlili,  17 
Mirror,  78 
Mohammed,  147 
Mohammed   Boubish,  Ahmed  ben, 

110 
Mohammed  the  Little,  221-2 
Mons  Aurasius,  14 
"  Morabet,"  108 
Mosque  doorkeeper,  27 
"  Mother  of  the  night,"  147 
Moufflon,  237 

"  Mouth  of  the  Desert,"  118 
"  Muezzin,"  28 
Necklets,  78 
Negroid  type,  125 
Nine-course  dinner,  123 
Nouader,  97,  98 

Olive  oil,  217,  218 
Operation,  an,  187 
Ouldja,  215,  217,  218,  219,  221 

Kaid,  210,  215 
Ouled  Abdi  dancers,  100,  101 
Ouled  Abdi  tribe,  100 
Ouled  Daoud  tribe,  173 
Ouled    Mansour,    136,     138.    139, 
153 

cliff  houses,  140 

fatal  accident,  144 

Ouelaa,  141 

headman,  138,  139 

leather  worker,  145 

Bcribe,  145 

women,  142 

wood  carving,  154 
Ouled  Nail  dancing  girls,  80 
Ouled  Ziane,  56,  60,  63,  118,  125 

migrations,  92 
Outlaws,  120 
"  Ovis  Lervia,"  237 


Owl's  eyes,  197 

Oxford,  Pitt-Rivers  Museum,  186 

Paper  money,  85 
Patient,  recovery  of  a,  190 
Pedlars,  144 
Philtres,  47,  149 
Pitt-Rivers  Museum,  186 
Plough,  162 
Ploughing  rites,  162 
Pneumonia,  223 
Porcupine's  foot,  80,  82,  197 
Praying  for  rain,  45 
Pride  of  lineage,  129 
Professional  women,  47 

"  Queen  of  the  Zibans,"  200 

Raids  for  corn,  131 

Rassira,  116,  117,  129,  130,  169 

canon,  116,  159 

gorge,  136,  157 

Kaid,  128 

upper  basin,  159 

valley,  117,  144,  153 
Rats,  106 
Reaping,  163 

"  Red  Cheeked  mountain,"  135 
Red  glass,  81 

Red  Village,  see  El  Kantara 
Religious  discussions,  176 
"  Rhim,"  239 
Rhouara,  127 
"  Ribat,"  108 
Rifle,  240 
Rings,  78 
Roast  lamb,  123 
Roman — 

descent,  91 

inscription,  171 

masonry,  20 

ruins,  177 

"  seggia,"  133 
Roof-rooms,  33 
Roofs,  33 
"  Rosebud,"  87,  88 

Sandals,  69 
Scales,  164 
Scorpions,  32,  217 
Scribes,  148 
Seasons,  233 


INDEX 


247 


"  Seggia,"  43,  207 

Roman,  133 
Setons,  193 
"  Shadoof,"  207 
Shawls,  76,  101 
Sheep,  25 
Shepherds,  25 
Shikari,  239 
Shoes,  76 

Shooting  from  the  saddle,  58 
Shooting  licence,  240 
Shooting-match,  a,  57 
Si  Abdelhamed,  215 
Si  Ali  Bey,  128 
Si  Amar,  239 
Sidi  Belkheir,  98 
Sidi  Lakhdar,  109,  133,  134 
Sidi  Okba,  201,  202 
Sidi  Okba  ben  Nafi— 

Arab  invader  of  Africa,  15,  202 

mosque,  202 
Sidi  Yahia,  92,  94 

Silver — 

brooches,  75 

casting,  83 

chains,  84 
Silversmith,  82 
Sixth  legion,  171,  177 
Sling,  25 
Slippers,  68 
Snow,  114 
Sorceresses,  148 
"  Sorceress  of  the  Moon,"  47 
Sorcery,  149 
Source     of     medical     knowledge, 

196 
Spanish  cards,  23 
Splints,  193 
Sun-dial,  168 

Superstitions,  145,  152,  223 
Surgeon's  fees,  194 
Surgeons,  native,  180,  185 
Surgical  instruments,  186 
Sus  Scrofa,  239 

Taberdga,  215,  228,  229 

administrator,  228,  230 

Kaid,  230 
Taghit  Sidi  Belkheir,  97 
Taghout,  172 

houses,  173 


Tagoust,  90,  91,  92,  112 

Kaid,  91 
Talismans,  78 
Tattoo  marks,  70 
Tawarek  Berbers,  120 
Tebessa,  239 
Tebouia  Hamed,  216 
Teeth,  extraction  of,  194 
Teniet  el  Abed,  100 

weaving,  101 
Tents,  234 
Terebinth  tree,  156 
Threshing,  163 
Tifelfel,  137,  156,  160 

"  guelaa,"  160,  165 

houses,  165 

sheikh,  160 
Tighanimine,  159 

gorge,  168,  169 

Roman  inscription,  171 

traversed     by     French     troops, 
170 
Tijdad,  104,  106,  110 
Tilatou,  gorge  of,  18 
Timgad,  13,  177 
Tkout,  166,  167 

Assistant  Administrator,  166 
Touggourt,  125 
Trepanning,  180,  186 
Tunisian  architects,  212 

Vendetta,  164 
Verneau,  Dr.,  187 

War  profiteering,  42 

Washing  clothes,  29,  234 

Water-clock,  44,  167 

Water-wheel,  68 

Weaving,  103 

Wed  Abdi,  16,  55,  64,  65,  90,  96, 

112 
Wed  el  Abiod,  16,  97,  116,  155,  159, 

168,  174 
Wed  el  Arab,  16,  206,  216,  221 
Wed  el  Kantara,  21 
Wed  Guechtan,  16,  206 
Wed  Rhir,  125 
Wed  Taga,  175 
Wedding,  219 

Wedding  ceremony,  51  ct  seq. 
White  Fathers,  174 
"  White  Hamlet,"  91 


248     AMONG    THE   HILL-FOLK   OF    ALGERIA 


"  White  Village,"  see  El  Kantara 
Wild  herbs,  195 
Wire  drawing,  83 
"  Wise  women,"  149 
Women — 

Arab,  status  of,  34 

unrestrained,  101 
Women's  dress,  74 
Wool,  102 

carding,  102 

spinning,  102 


Wool  (continued) — 
weaving,  101 

Yamina,  70 

Zab  Chergui,  127,  201,  208 
Zawia,  71,  86,  108,  224 
Zellatou,  169 
Zeribet  el  Wed,  201 

Kaid,  203,  208 

Khalifa,  208 


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